Welcome Shze-Hui Tjoa

Sundog Lit is proud to announce our new CNF Editor, Shze-Hui Tjoa. Our blog team sat down with Shze-Hui to talk about topics including her interests, writing process, and her favorite piece of writing advice.

Where are you from/currently based?

I grew up in Singapore, but now I live in London in the UK, just south of the River Thames.

What type of writing are you drawn to/what kind of writing excites you? 

I’m drawn to beautiful language and emotional vulnerability. But what I like most is a willingness to play and experiment with form. I always get excited about what I think of as “eloquent form”–when I can feel that the structure of a piece is trying to speak on its own terms and express something that cannot be said with plain text alone.

What’s the last thing you read that stuck with you?

Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress. I love a good, dramatic story about artists’ inner lives.

What other medium(s) do you draw inspiration from?

When I’m not writing, I’m singing, playing my guitar, or dancing. All these forms of expression come from the same place inside me, and they help me to feel like a conduit for something bigger.

What’s the best piece of writing advice that you’ve received?

Don’t force things to completion. Give your work the time it needs to become what it wants to become. •

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Shze-Hui’s nonfiction can be found in Colorado Review, Southeast Review, and So To Speak, and has been listed as notable in The Best American Essays 2021. Aside from her role at Sundog, she also serves as the fiction editor of Exposition Review. At the moment she is revising her first book, an experimental memoir. You can find out more on her website, https://www.tjoashzehui.com (@shzehui on Instagram, @shzehuitjoa on Twitter).