Albert Chu

I published two novelettes and three short stories this year, and I’m honored to share all of them with you. With awards season providing everyone an opportunity to promote their works one last time before the year ends, I also wanted to take the chance to kick off my website’s blog with an inaugural post.

In the novelette category, I published:

Another Such Victory
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Summer 2024

Matryoshka City
The Future Fire, Issue 2024.70

And for short stories, I published:

A Most Lovely Song
Podcastle 861

A Prototype of Yourself
Inner Worlds, Issue 4

Eloïse
Small Wonders, Issue 11

If you’d like a copy of any of the above pieces which are not free to read online, please get in touch with me. You can DM me on my Twitter or Bluesky, or use the Contact page.

Almost three years ago, “Another Such Victory” was the very first piece I wrote after a multi-year writing hiatus. It was, I told myself, my way of entering the world of speculative fiction, which I’d always wanted to do. Conversely, I started writing “A Most Lovely Song” in January of this year; the other three pieces I had published this year fall somewhere in between those two points in time, from early 2022 to early 2024.

A lot about myself and my writing has changed in that time. In particular, I approach themes of war, supremacy, and violence differently now. I’m not sure that it’s a better way, but after witnessing more than a year of genocide in Palestine, I think it’s inevitable that my thinking and writing both shifted.

Witnessing is the easiest word to use there, but it’s not really correct. I’m convinced that nobody is only witnessing anything—we’re taking action, one way or another. As I’m writing this, the US-Israeli genocide of Palestinians is ongoing. If you’re reading this, I’d like to ask you to recommit—or make new commitments—to action against the genocide in whatever ways you’re capable of. I know that’s not an easy ask; I’m still struggling with it myself.

Backtracking a bit—while I think my writing has straightforwardly improved in some ways, there’s something that my earlier writing shows that my newer writing doesn’t, and vice versa. So I’m grateful to share work that I wrote over a broad stretch of time with you, and I hope you enjoy it.

I’m looking forward to another year of writing.