Where to Start with Bonnie Chau
For readers new to Bonnie Chau's work, the path is straightforward but incredibly rewarding. As of now, Chau has published one major standalone book: her acclaimed debut short story collection, All Roads Lead to Blood (2018). Because this is her central published volume, it serves as the absolute best starting point. However, readers do not have to limit themselves to reading it straight through from cover to cover. There are two primary ways to approach her work depending on your reading preferences.
Path 1: The Printed Order (The Classic Path)
Reading the stories in All Roads Lead to Blood in the order they were printed allows you to experience the collection's natural rhythm. Chau carefully arranged these 16 stories to transition between different tones, settings, and structural experiments. This path is ideal if you want to fully immerse yourself in the book's curated flow and observe how the recurring themes of identity, displacement, and second-generation Chinese-American youth build upon one another.
Path 2: The Standout Showcase (The Curated Path)
If you prefer to sample a writer's strongest or most accessible pieces before committing to a full collection, you can start with a few curated standouts. We recommend starting with "Stevie Versus The Negative Space", a story that perfectly showcases Chau's sharp wit, realistic dialogue, and poignant exploration of modern relationships. From there, you can read "All Roads Lead to Blood" (the title story) to experience her signature blend of gritty realism and poetic, slightly surreal imagery. Once you get a feel for her style, you can circle back and read the remaining stories in any order you choose.
Deep Dive: All Roads Lead to Blood (2018)
Published in 2018 by the Santa Fe Writers Project (SFWP) under their 2040 Books imprint, All Roads Lead to Blood is a collection of 16 short stories focusing primarily on young Chinese-American women navigating the complexities of love, failure, desire, and familial heritage. The book won the inaugural 2040 Books Prize and was named a finalist for the CLMP Firecracker Award in Fiction.
Stylistically, the collection is notable for its resistance to traditional narrative structures. Chau frequently incorporates bilingual elements, slipping between English, Mandarin, and French. The settings often shift between the suburbs of Southern California, New York City, and France, mirroring the geographical and cultural displacements experienced by her characters.
Uncollected Short Stories and Journal Publications
For readers who have finished her debut collection and want to explore more of her short fiction, Chau has published numerous uncollected stories in prominent literary magazines and journals. These pieces can be read as standalones in any order. Notable entries include:
- "Chinese Box" (Published in the Bennington Review, 2020) – A story that continues her exploration of complex family dynamics and memory.
- "Lobby Art" and "The Thrill" (Published in Epiphany Magazine, 2021) – Stories showcasing her continued interest in visual art and the subtle tensions of urban life.
- Short fiction in Joyland, The Offing, and Fence – These publications house earlier and companion pieces that share the same sharp psychological insights and visceral imagery found in her debut collection.
Translations and Collaborative Works
In addition to her original fiction, Bonnie Chau is an active literary translator working with French and Chinese texts. Knowing her translation work is crucial to understanding her approach to language in her own fiction. Key translation projects and contributions include:
- Anni Baobei Translations – Chau has translated internet fiction from the late 1990s by the popular Chinese writer Anni Baobei (now writing under the name Li Jun Li). These translations challenge traditional Western notions of "literary" style and offer a window into early Chinese digital subcultures.
- Nineteen Ways of Looking at Awono (2024) – Chau contributed to this collaborative anthology of translations, showcasing her active role in the contemporary translation community.
What to Know Before You Start
Before diving into Bonnie Chau's writing, it helps to keep a few stylistic elements in mind. First, do not expect neat, happy endings. Her characters are often messy, dealing with personal failures, unrequited desires, and the alienation of living between multiple cultures. Second, her prose frequently blends stark, gritty realism with sudden shifts into poetic or fabulist spaces. Finally, her background in art history (which she studied at UCLA) and literary translation (which she studied at Columbia University) deeply informs her work, resulting in stories that are visually rich and highly sensitive to the nuances of language.