“What really made me understand the fun of reading was kid lit, and that’s why I’m still a kid lit writer – it’s very imaginative.

She tried to make me read all of these classics, but I was like, ‘Even you don’t read them, so why should I?’ She instilled in me a very performative view of ‘literature’ that turned me off of it for years. Then she snaps a picture of it, posts it on social media, and never opens the book. She would take pictures of these classic books on her desk and pair them with a cup of tea or something. “My mom was the one who really encouraged me to read, but her idea of reading is really superficial and elitist – ‘Oh, you need to read Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare because you need to read classics,’ but then she, herself, never read any of those. I graduated at the height of the pandemic, and I wasn’t able to get a job, so I just stayed at home in quarantine and furiously wrote instead. Then I wanted to go into biology, but something drew me to biochem instead.

I actually skipped through a bunch of degrees I was going to do history at first, but then I discovered I don’t like writing essays. I decided to do biochem, because I was also interested in science. “Growing up, people always say that if you become an artist, you’re not going to be able to sustain yourself, so I couldn’t take the risk of investing in a full degree in the arts, or even just English. Middle grade novel Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor was published in 2022. Sequel Heavenly Tyrant is expected in 2023. Zhao’s debut novel, YA Iron Widow, appeared in 2021, became a bestseller, won a British Science Fiction Association Award, and was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award, British Fantasy Award, Dragon Award, Locus Award, and Lodestar Award.

Their video “EVERYTHING CULTURALLY WRONG WITH MULAN 2020 (And How They Could’ve Been Fixed)’’, discussing the live-action remake of the animated Disney film, has over 3.4 million views, and can be seen here. They finished school at the height of the first COVID wave, and since they were unable to find a job due to the pandemic, they focused on writing and discussing media online, developing a large following on social media and YouTube. Zhao attended Simon Fraser University, graduating in 2020 with a degree in biochemical disease research. XIRAN JAY ZHAO is in their twenties, and was born in a small town in China, immigrating to British Columbia in Canada in their early teens.

Xiran jay zhao heavenly tyrant