Karissa Chen


Karissa Chen is a Taiwanese American writer. Her debut novel, Homeseeking, was released in January 2025. She is a Fulbright, Kundiman Fiction, and VONA/Voices fellow.
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Biography

Chen received a Masters of Fine Arts in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College in 2012.
She is a founding editor, alongside Ross Gay and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin. She was the former senior fiction editor at The Rumpus and is the current editor-in-chief of Hyphen magazine.
Her first book, Homekeeping, was published by G. P. Putnam's Sons on January 7, 2025. A historical fiction novel, it is set between World War II to 2008, narrating the couple Haiwen and Suchi. The protagonists grew up in Shanghai and are separated due to the Chinese Civil War, finally reuniting in their seventies in Los Angeles. Chen began writing it in 2017 and finished editing in late 2023. The idea was inspired by a photograph of her late grandfather standing in front of his mother's grave, whom he hadn't seen since he left Shanghai for Taiwan near the end of the Chinese Civil War. Originally conceived as a short story, Chen wrote the first 100 pages in just four days. She stated its intention was to tell a story of immigration, and hope it "allows people to feel a little bit more empathy. If you are moved by these fictional people, then can you please also be moved by the very real people for whom this is happening on a daily basis." The novel was a Good Morning America Book Club pick and nominee for Favorite Historical Fiction and Favorite Debut Novel at the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards. Kirkus Reviews praised how the author "avoids romanticizing or demonizing any of her characters. Nuances of class and ethnicity, as well as political identity, come to life as she digs into crevices of ambivalence and muddled motivation".

Novels

  • ''Homeseeking''

Short fiction

  • "Finding Beautiful"
  • "Fire Lover"
  • "Little Birds"
  • "The Quiet After"
  • "Long-Distance Lover"
  • "The Emperor's Malady"
  • "Decency"
  • "A Brief Intimacy"
  • "The Testimony of Joyce B."
  • "Eclipse"
  • "X"
  • "Altar"
  • "What Remains"
  • "Return to Sender"
  • "Dear Wigleaf"
  • "Pomegranate"
  • "Devils, Our Songs"
  • "Museum for Women Who Did Not Appear"
  • "Blue Tears"