X.H. Collins

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X.H. Collins

X.H. CollinsX.H. CollinsX.H. Collins

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About Xixuan

Photo © Giraffe Photography

My Background

Xixuan was born in Hechuan, Sichuan Province, China, grew up in Kangding, on the East Tibet Plateau, and now calls Chengdu, China, and Iowa, USA home. Although always wanting to be a writer, she chose a career path of science and earned a MS in cell biology and a PhD in nutrition. She recently retired as a biology professor after teaching for seventeen years. When she's not teaching or writing, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, dancing (ballroom and Latin), and cooking.

 Photo © Giraffe Photography 

My Writing

Xixuan began writing in English in the summer of 2015. The second short story she had ever written in English placed third in the 2016 Iron Pen Contest, a 24-hour writing contest organized by the Midwest Writing Center. A flash fiction piece earned the honor of “editor’s favorite” in the River City Readers Flash Fiction Contest in 2016, and another placed second in 2017. A short story has appeared in the MOON magazine and its anthology “Out of this World: The Best Short Stories from The MOON."

She's currently working on her second novel, a story about an extraordinary woman and her ghost mother.

About Flowing Water, Falling Flowers

Flowing Water, Falling Flowers is Xixuan's first novel. The idea of the story was born out of a conversation with her mom. Three Rivers, the fictional city in the novel is based on her birth place Hechuan, where her uncle, aunt and their families still reside and which she recently visited in 2018.

A cause dear to my heart

Donate to Black Hawk College "ABC All-Star" Scholarship Fund

The scholarship is for students with disabilities. ABC is our son’s initial, and it also stands for American-Born Chinese, and all students can be stars and shine. We hope to destigmatize disabilities, including the invisible kinds: autism, ADHD, anxiety, and other forms of mental  illness-related disabilities .

Donate here (Please select ABC-All Star)

Currently Reading

I don’t read as much as I would like, and even less keep a good record of what I read. I read new books as well as old ones. I read children’s books with my son. A few favorite authors are Haruki Murakami, Charles Yu, Lisa See, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Sue Monk Kidd, Lin Yutang, and Eileen Chang.  

Books I'm reading to/with my son

The Percy Jackson Series - Rick Riordan

The Alvin Ho Series (Yes, Chinese family!) - Lenore Look and Leuyen Pham

A wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

The Year of the Dog - Grace Lin

The Year of the Rat - Grace Lin

A Night Divided - Jennifer A. Nielsen

The One and Only Ivan - Katherine Applegate

Bud, Not Buddy - Christopher Paul Curtis (Highly recommend Mrs. Leonardo's audio book on YouTube. The way she reads the book gives me even more joy)

The Front Desk and Three Keys - Kelly Yang

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (second time)

The Lost Ryu - Emi Watanabe Cohen

Morning Sun in Wuhan - Ying Chang Compestine

2023

Natural History - Andrea Barrett

The 12th Commandment - Daniel Torday

The Sense of Wonder - Matthew Salesses

Trust Exercise - Susan Choi

2022

The Family Chao - Lan Samantha Chang

We Heard It When We Were Young - Chuy Renteria

Body Work - Melissa Febos

Peach Blossom Spring - Melissa Fu

Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

White Ivy - Susie Yang

Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez

When the Reckoning Comes - LaTanya McQueen

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

The Last Rose of Shanghai - Weina Dai Randel

Mrs. Everything - Jennifer Weiner

The Committed - Veit Thanh Nguyen

Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong

Dust Tracks on a Road - Zora Neale Hurston

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

 张爱玲:我站在原地只等你一人 - 林系言

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

The Great Divorce - CS Lewis

On Greif and Grieving - Kubler-Ross and Kessler

China’s Millennial Digital Generation: Conversations with Balinghou (Post-1980s) Indie Filmmakers - Karen Ma (read my review here: https://chajournal.blog/2022/10/12/chinese-filmmakers/)

Our Missing Hearts - Celeste Ng

北京娃娃 - 春树 (Beijing Doll - Chun Sue)

Bookends - Zibby Owens

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion

乳牙 - 春树 (Milk Teeth - Chun Sue)

Hush Hush Hush - Audra Kerr Brown

The Writing Life - Annie Dillard

My Salinger Year - Joanna Rakoff

Characteristics with Chinese Characteristics  - Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao (ed.) (Review coming soon)

The Best American Essays 2022 - Alexander Chee (ed.)

Tokyo Ueno Station - Miri Yu (Translated by Morgan Giles)

Real Life - Brandon Tyler 

2021

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd

How Much of These Hills is Gold - C Pam Zhang

The Lost Jewels - Kirstin Manning

Intimations (a thin volume of my favorite essays about the pandemic)- Zadie Smith 

Craft in the Real World - Matthew Salesses

The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck

A little Life (Audio book) - Hanya Yanagihara

Land of Big Numbers - Te-Ping Chen

Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart

The Gospel of Gentility - Jane Hunter

The Conversion of Missionaries - Lian Xi

Good Chinese Wife - Susan Blumberg-Kason

My Walk with Grief - Elaine K. Olson

Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer

Minor Feelings - Cathy Park Hong

Rabbit in the Moon - Heather Diamond

And I Do Not Forgive You - Amber Sparks

Married, Living in Italy - Misty Urban

Squared Away - Alicia Dill

The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich

Let Me Tell you What I Mean - Joan Didion

Whiteout Conditions - Tariq Shah

My Day as Regan Forrester - Misty Urban

Golden Inches, the China Memoir - Grace Service

Nightbitch -Rachel Yoder

The Incendiaries - R. O. Kwon

The Glass Hotel - Emily St John Mandel

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tze, translated by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Queen of The Night - Alexander Chee

Upstream Odyssey - Danial W. Crofts

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan (re-read for IPR Talk of Iowa Book Club0

In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado

Never Let Me Go -  Kazuo Ishiguro 

Night Rooms - Gina Nutt

Disgrace -  J. M. Coetzee 

2020

The Book of Longings – Sue Monk Kidd

Interior Chinatown – Charles Yu

The Mountains Sing -  Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai 

River Bend Chronicles – Ben Miller

The Mermaid Chair – Sue Monk Kidd

The Year of the Rat – Grace Lin

The Refugees – Viet Thanh Nguyen

Dear Friend, from My life, I Write to You – Yiyun Li

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers -  Yiyun Li

Kinder than Solitude – Yiyun Li

The Song of the Jade Lily – Kirsty Manning

The Woman Warrior – Maxine Hong Kingston

China Man – Maxine Hong Kingston

The Hundred Year Flood – Matthew Salesses

The Bride Finder – Susan Carroll

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel – Alexander Chee

Walking on Water - Madeleine L'Engle

Madame Bovary's Ovaries - David P. Barash and Nanelle R. Barash

Belabored - Lyz Lenz

Disappear, Doppelgänger Disappear - Matthew Salesses

A Candle for San Simon - Kelly Daniels

Edinburgh - Alexander Chee

Third Class Super Hero -Charles Yu

Sorry, Please, Thank You - Charles Yu

Nights When Nothing Happened -Simon Han

Gork, The Teenage Dragon - Gabe Hudson

Beloved - Toni Morrison

2019

Chinglish – Sue Pickford Cheung

The Tenth Muse - Catherine Chung

God Land – Lyz Lenz

The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan - Ben Foss

The War on Normal People – Andrew Yang

How to Change Your Mind – Michael Pollan

What We Were Promised – Lucy Tan

Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

The Island of Sea Woman – Lisa See

The Rules of Magic – Alice Hoffman

Elegies for Uncanny Girls – Jennifer Colville

Killing Commendatore – Haruki Murakami

The Necessaries – Misty Urban

Dog Logic – Tom Strelich

Shattered Pearl – Jodie Toohey

The Old Guard – Tom McKay

Men Without Women – Haruki Murakami

Moment in Peking– Lin Yutang (I read the Chinese version earlier)



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