John Chu

@johnchu

The writer who won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Not the movie director. (He/him/his) Mastodon: @john_chu@wandering.shop

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John Chu@johnchu· Jul 12

Someone gave me this adorable little 3D printed bao during my book signing!

John Chu@johnchu· Jun 19

Why I don't read calligraphy; the text is 見性成佛 I can make out 性 and 佛. (Half-Length Portrait of Bodhidharma by Hakuin Ekaku)

imagined portrait of Bodhidharma looking upward at the text 見性成佛

John Chu@johnchu· Jun 10

Hey, The Subtle Art of Folding Space is #3 on Amazon's list of the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2026 So Far! www.amazon.com/b?_encoding=...

The cover of The Subtle Art of Folding Space. A stack of bamboo steamer baskets. Their contents get progressively weird going from top to bottom.

John Chu@johnchu· May 30

At Pittsburgh Book Festival. Someone named Nic made a wonderful drawing of the panel I was on. In order from L to R: Alexandra Oliva, me. @matociquala.bsky.social, Jamie Lackey . (Shared w/permission)

outstanding drawing of panelists, in order from L to R: Alexandra Oliva, me, Elizabeth Bear, Jamie Lackey.

John Chu@johnchu· Apr 10

Friday! I'm now in Cambridge, MA. Join the always insightful @maxgladstone.bsky.social and me at Porter Square Books tonight (4/10) at 7pm as we chat about stuff, including my novel The Subtle Art of Folding Space. portersquarebooks.com/event/2026-0...

Join
JOHN CHU
on tour!
APRIL 8 - ODYSSEY BOOKS WITH JEDEDIAH BERRY
South Hadley, MA
APRIL 9 - PRINT: A BOOKSTORE
WITH LIBERTY HARDY
Portland, ME
APRIL 10 - PORTER SQUARE BOOKS
WITH MAX GLADSTONE
Cambridge, MA

John Chu@johnchu· Apr 9

I'm now actually in Portland, ME, so one more reminder. @libertyhardy.bsky.social and I will be chatting about my novel The Subtle Art of Folding Space Tonight (4/9) at 7PM at Print (273 Congress St) printbookstore.com/event/2026-0...

John Chu@johnchu· Apr 7

Spend a little time with my novel The Subtle Art of Folding Space! Available today! Bugs in the physics! Status reports in the form of food! Finding a family! us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Cover art for The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu.
Has a blurb from Max Gladstone "A work of crystalline vision and meticulous humanity"

John Chu@johnchu· Apr 2

The Subtle Art of Folding Space tour! On April 10th at 7pm, I will be at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA with @maxgladstone.bsky.social portersquarebooks.com/event/2026-0...

John Chu@johnchu· Apr 2

Also, the April 2026 issue of Locus has an interview with me and a wonderful Niall Harrison review of The Subtle Art of Folding Space. He calls it "a novel of surface charm and inner steel". (Screenshot is only of the opening paragraphs. It's a long review.)

John Chu's The Subtle Art of Folding Space is the third notable first novel I've read this year. Unlike Jasmin Kirkbride's The Forest on the Edge of Time (reviewed in February) or Albertine Clarke's The Body Builders (reviewed in March), I went into it with expectations - Chu has published a couple of dozen good short stories over the last decade, picking up a Hugo and a Nebula along the way, and indeed the opening chapters of this novel are a lightly reworked version of "Hold-Time Violations"
from 2015 - and they were satisfyingly met. The Subtle Art of Folding Space is a novel of surface charm and inner steel, of witty images and sharp ideas, of multidimensional cosmologv and equallv complex familv dvnamics.

John Chu@johnchu· Mar 24

(This time with the cover) The Subtle Art of Folding Space comes out April 7th. Preorder now! From today to Thursday @barnesandnoble.com members get 25% off with the code PREORDER25 www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-subtle...

Cover of The Subtle Art of Folding Space
A tier of bamboo steamers run down the cover. The further down we get, the weirder the contents of the steam. It starts with bao on top to stars and planets on the bottom.

John Chu@johnchu· Feb 23

Harvard Book Store is having a snow day sale. Use the coupon SNOWDAY for 15% online orders. www.harvard.com/book/9781250...

Now that you've got your eggs, milk, and bread, shop our online sale for the necessities that won't expire. Enter coupon code SNOWDAY at checkout on Harvard.com today only for 15% off your eligible web purchases. The sale includes new books, pre-orders, tote bags, merch,

John Chu@johnchu· Feb 23

Hey, Apple Books lists The Subtle Art of Folding as one Spring's Most Anticipated Books! Release date is 4/7. Preorder now! us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Screenshot of Apple Books page of Spring's Most Anticipated Books. There are three rows of book covers. The middle row is Debuts and The Subtle Art of Folding Space is in that row.

John Chu@johnchu· Feb 7

Publishers Weekly calls The Subtle Art of Folding Space a "smart, funny, and intricate debut" and says "It’s as rollicking as it is thought-provoking." Release date is 4/7. Available to pre-order now! us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Cover of The Subtle Art of Folding Space, along with the Publishers Weekly review:
In Hugo and Nebula award winner Chu’s smart, funny, and intricate debut, a Gaia-like presence lies comatose, and it’s up to her daughter Ellie to rescue her. Complicating this quest are physics student Ellie’s fears that saving her mom will mean tampering with the “skunkworks,” the liminal plane that underpins the multiverse, and her vicious older sister, Chris, who, since childhood, has been staging daily attacks against Ellie with the pretext of honing her survival skills. Meanwhile, their cousin Daniel serves as a fact-checker for the skunkworks. Whenever a glitch in the laws of physics is reported—such as a beach ball going through a wall instead of bouncing off it—he manifests repair plans. When Daniel and Ellie are summoned to a meeting with the multiverse’s chief architect, Mary, the cleverly unfolding plot gets a new crease. To save their universe and many others, Daniel and Ellie must wrangle with a renegade posse of physicists who are warping the laws of nature to keep Ellie’s mom alive. Chu loads his tale with wordplay and cultural and scientific references that read like inside jokes for an audience of engineers. It’s as rollicking as it is thought-provoking. (Apr.)
Correction: An earlier version of this review misidentified the location where Ellie’s mom lies comatose and misdescribed Mary as Taiwanese. The review has been further updated for clarity.

John Chu@johnchu· Jan 22

My short story "The Diner at the Duty of Intersection and Despair" was published at @uncannymagazine.bsky.social in Jul/Aug 2025. Chosen one narrative goes wrong, Justin and Bright have to save the world (and sort out their relationship) www.uncannymagazine.com/article/the-...

Cover art for Uncanny Magazine Issue 65 | art by Nilah Magruder
with a quote from "The Diner at the Intersection of Duty and Despair" by John Chu
"The crystal cliff loomed over Justin. It glinted like a giant chunk of clear, flawless diamond under the harsh winter sun. An ever-shifting rock field lay behind him. Every few seconds, except on the trail he had just
blazed, dust coalesced into rock, and boulders disintegrated into dust."

John Chu@johnchu· Dec 4

(Repost with screenshot) The Subtle Art of Folding Space got a starred review from Library Journal! "Chu finds a delightful and poignant intersection between the multiverse, family dysfunction, and dim sum in his debut novel."

DEBUT Ellie visits her comatose mother every weekend. That is not enough for her older sister, Chris, who reminds Ellie constantly she will never live up to Chris's own filial piety, which seems to include using random people to harangue Ellie and repeated assassination attempts.
When Chris sends Ellie into the skunkworks-the physics-defying apparatus that creates and maintains universes—for a minor issue, it turns into a cascade of discovered problems, which include her cousin Daniel finding a device that is keeping Ellie's mother alive but creating destabilizing errors that jeopardize the universe. As Ellie and Daniel investigate the source of the illicit device, they find that their family's past is much more convoluted than known, and Ellie may need to choose between saving her family or the universe itself. Intricate worldbuilding, generational trauma, and reports relayed as food are woven into a story that has great action and engaging characters.
VERDICT Chu finds a delightful and poignant intersection between the multiverse, family dysfunction, and dim sum in his debut novel.

Reviewed by Kristi Chadwick, Dec 01, 2025

John Chu@johnchu· Nov 1

I have ARCs! torpublishinggroup.com/the-subtle-a...

Cover of ARC of The Subtle Art of Folding Space

John Chu@johnchu· Sep 2

ICYMI: (This time with the correct release date!) Weston Wei's delightful cover for my novel The Subtle Art of Folding Space, animated! Repairing physics that has gone awry! Delicious food! Choices no one should ever have to make! Release date: 4/7/2026

John Chu@johnchu· Jul 5

My Readercon schedule! My reading is 7/19 (Saturday) at 10am. I'll be showing off the cover of my forthcoming novel _The Subtle Art of Folding Space_ and reading from "The Diner at the Intersection of Duty and Despair" (in this month's @uncannymagazine.bsky.social )

Friday, July 18, 2025
13:00 Why the Fantastical is Fantastic for Musicals Salon F, Duration: 60 mins
15:00 Writers Who Translate, Translators Who Write Salon I/J, Duration: 60 mins

Saturday, July 19, 2025
10:00 Reading: John Chu Empower / Embrace, Duration: 30 mins
14:00 Let's Do the Time Loop Again Salon G/H, Duration: 60 mins

John Chu@johnchu· May 6

My novel, The Subtle Art of Folding Space, has a cover! Read about repairing physics, unreasonable parental expectations, and great Taiwanese food! Out on April 7, 2026. Pre-order now: t.co/0nz8JuNhwf Art credits: Jacket art by Weston Wei, Jacket Design by Katie Klimowicz.

Cover of The Subtle Art of Folding Space, coming April 7, 2026
Four sets of bamboo steamers going from the top of the cover to the bottom. The top one holds steamed bao. The contents of each steamer below it get progressively more surreal. One has bao with the universe as a filling. The next steamer below it has planets. The last steamer is filled with gear works. Two hands holding red chopsticks reach for the first and third steamer.

The Subtle Art of Folding Space, is the exhilarating debut science fiction novel from Nebula and Hugo-winning author John Chu channels unhinged physics, generational trauma, and the comfort of really good dim sum. This isn't your usual jaunt through quantum physics.
Ellie's universe, and this one, is falling apart. Her ailing mother is in a coma; her sister, Chris, accuses her of being insufficiently Taiwanese between assassination attempts; and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack the skunkworks, the machinery that keeps the physics of each universe working the way it's supposed to.
Daniel, Ellie's cousin, has found an illicit device in the skunkworks-one that keeps Ellie's comatose mother alive while also creating destabilizing bugs in the physics of this universe. It's not a good day.
If she can confront her mother's legacy and overcome her family's generational trauma, she just might find a way to preserve the skunkworks and reconcile with her sister...but digging into her family's past is thornier than it seems, and the secrets she uncovers will force Ellie to choose between her family and the universe itself.

John Chu@johnchu· Mar 29

I may have waited my entire adult life to see a production of this show.

The show curtain for the Encores! production of Love Life.

John Chu@johnchu· Mar 29

Maybe Happy Ending has a less flashy show curtain than Smash

Show curtain for Maybe Happy Ending, which is a black background with the show title in white inside a white box.

John Chu@johnchu· Mar 28

Well, this makes it pretty clear what show you're at.

the "shoe curtain" a bunch of light bulbs arranged to form the word "SMASH"

John Chu@johnchu· Dec 16

Award eligibility time! I published one story in 2024, the novelette "Wonderland Is a Parking Lot in Revere" in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social (Mentors! Multiple timelines! A tenor trying to get his high C!) www.uncannymagazine.com/article/wond...

Story tile for my novelette "Wonderland Is a Parking Lot in Revere" with the excerpt "I'm slightly drunk, too, but not drunk enough to walk into that conference room. You don't have to be sloshed to karaoke, of course. It's just that going to the icebreaker feels like slamming the door on a part of my life that that's not actually over yet."

John Chu@johnchu· Jul 16

ReaderCon attendees: Saturday night, I had dinner w/a friend who then tested positive for COVID Sunday night. I just tested negative, but if you had any contact w/me, please test.

Negative COVID test taken the morning of July 16th

John Chu@johnchu· Dec 22

And my Ignyte Award arrived!

John Chu@johnchu· Jul 11

ReaderCon is this weekend! My reading is Sun at 10am. I'll be reading something so new, it doesn't have a title yet.

Friday, July 14, 2023
2:00 PM
Do Short Stories Still Matter?
Salon 4, Duration: 60 mins

4:00 PM
Nontoxic Masculinity in SFF
Salon A, Duration: 60 mins

Sunday, July 16, 2023
10:00 AM
Reading: John Chu
Blue Hills, Duration: 30 mins

12:00 PM
Word Processors Designed for Authors
Salon A, Duration: 60 mins

John Chu@johnchu· Jul 6

I'm thrilled and honored that my novelette is on the same list as such wonderful work by some truly amazing writers. Thank you so much!

✦ Best Novelette
· “The Difference Between Love and Time”, by Catherynne M. Valente (Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance, Solaris)
· “A Dream of Electric Mothers”, by Wole Talabi (Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Tordotcom)
· “If You Find Yourself Speaking to God, Address God with the Informal You”, by John Chu (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2022)
· “Murder By Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness”, by S.L. Huang (Clarkesworld, December 2022)
· “The Space-Time Painter”, by Hai Ya (Galaxy’s Edge, April 2022)
· “We Built This City”, by Marie Vibbert (Clarkesworld, June 2022)

John Chu@johnchu· May 23

The Nebula comes with its own dust cloth!