The Joy of Writing Real Human Beings with Jean Chen Ho

January 19, 2022

At BOMB Magazine, Jean Chen Ho discusses her new novel, Fiona and Jane, which follows a friendship between two women over the course of decades. “Even though they’re not real or based on people in my life,” she says, “I think the characters invoke communities that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of. I’m also not a big ‘representation matters’ person. To have representation is something. But it’s more important to me to just think of my characters as individuals and real human beings. There are people who have mental health issues, who have rage, who love to tell jokes, people who love sex and have a lot of joy.”

is a writer and illustrator. She is the author of two illustrated books, Last Night's Reading (Penguin Books, 2015) and Sanpaku (Archaia 2018).