Juli Min

How did you become a writer? In college I studied Russian and comparative literature with the plan to become an academic. One year in graduate school in my early twenties disabused me of that notion, and from then on I’ve dedicated myself to craft. I wrote my first book when I was twenty-five, a memoir about my year signed to a K-pop label in Seoul, but it died on submission. After that I ran a literary magazine for six years, finished an MFA, and worked on two more books; then I found a new agent and sold Shanghailanders.

Name your writing influences. I went to writing camp for a few summers in middle school. I remember the last day when my mom picked me up and the teacher called us in for a conference. “Your daughter should keep writing - she’s good at it.” Pithy words of praise can stay with a shy, introverted kid, planting the seed of confidence that can change a life. In high school, my 10th grade English teacher Carole Braverman pushed me to enter schoolwide essay contests and national competitions. Poet Theodore Deppe, when a visiting artist/teacher at my high school, generously let me experiment with poetry and music for credit during my senior year. Writing and music - those were the only two things I ever wanted to do.

And then: Svetlana Boym, Eileen Chang, Marguerite Duras, James Joyce, Kim Young-Ha, Min Jin Lee, Yukio Mishima, Vladimir Nabokov, W.G. Sebald, Virginia Woolf

 And of course: The incredible MFA program at Warren Wilson.

When and where do you write? Mornings, by hand, as early as possible, at a small desk in the corner of my room. I aim to do a minimum 500 words a day. 

Before I write, I always journal.

What are you working on now? I am playing with style, exploring options for voice for my next novel. It takes place in Manhattan in the early aughts.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Yes. If I can’t push through it, I spend the time reading instead. Sometimes I’ll re-read Nabokov’s story “Spring in Fialta,” which always inspires, and serves as a reset.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? “Why not?” - Antonya Nelson 

When I told her during my MFA thesis semester that I couldn’t possibly change the ethnicity and entire backstory of one character to fit the larger story’s needs. 

Sometimes you must let go of details you love. Make big decisions. Just try everything. Play.

What’s your advice to new writers? Finish projects, keep reading, and sign with Stephanie Delman at Trellis.

Juli Min is a Korean-American writer based in Shanghai. She holds an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson, and she studied Russian and comparative literature at Harvard University. Her novel Shanghailanders was published in May 2024 by Spiegel & Grau (US) and Dialogue Books (UK). Translations are forthcoming in Japanese, German, Spanish, and Norwegian.