Chu, John
Entry updated 4 May 2026. Tagged: Author, Translator.
(? - ) Taiwan-born translator, podcast "narrator" and author, in the USA from the age of six; he began to publish work of genre interest with "Thirty Seconds from Now" in The Time Traveler's Almanac (anth 2013) edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer. He has since published short stories widely; The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere (2013 ebook) won a Hugo award for best short story in 2014, and like several of his works juxtaposes generational family intimacies with adroitly confabulated Magic-Realist dilemmas: at their best, his tales generate a sense of lived-in worlds. He has translated several sf stories.
Chu's first novel, The Subtle Art of Folding Space (7 October Tor.com as "Hold-Time Violations"; much exp 2026), sets something like a family romance at the heart of a Steampunkish clockwork Multiverse-like construct (see Cosmology), with each universe containing a smaller and nestling within a larger; the central cast has Superpowers which enable them to maintain this system. [JC]
John Chu
born Taiwan
works
- The Subtle Art of Folding Space (New York: Tor, 2026) [early version first appeared 7 October Tor.com as "Hold-Time Violations": much exp: hb/Katie Klimowicz]
collections and stories
- The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere (New York: Tor.com, 2013) [story: ebook: first appeared 20 February 2013 Tor.com: na/Christopher Silas Neal]
- A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Proposed Trade-Offs for the Overhaul of the Barricade (New York: Tor.com, 2014) [story: ebook: first appeared 30 July Tor.com: na/Julie Dillon]
- Hold-Time Violations (New York: Tor.com, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared 7 October Tor.com: na/Tommy Arnold]
- How to Piss Off a Failed Super-Soldier (place not given: Book Smugglers Publishing, 2016) [story: ebook: na/Melanie Cook]
- Beyond the El (New York: Tor.com, 2019) [story: ebook: na/]
links
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