Helen Z. Dong & Solar Hoàng

BIO

Solar Hoàng (she/her) is a fantasy author, poet, and essayist, whose writing always has the backdrop of her Vietnamese culture. Her work has been published in New ASEAN Lit and REVERENT: An Anthology of Divinity. Outside of writing, she is passionate about Asian cinema and coffee. She is represented by Francesca Ali at WME Books UK. Find her on socials @thesolarhoang.

Helen Z. Dong (she/her) is a Chinese-American writer of fantasy and horror. Her work has been published in the UnCensored Ink anthology and the REVERENT anthology. When not writing, she can be found playing video games or watching cartoons with her cat. She is represented by Carey Blankenship-Kramer at Azantian Literary Agency and is on social media under the handle: @helenzdong.

MSWL

GENRE/AGE CATEGORY

  • NA/Adult Fantasy

  • YA with crossover appeal is okay

  • Fantasy, with horror elements

THINGS WE’D LIKE TO SEE

  • Books from BIPOC writers

  • Atmospheric, dark, and twisty vibes

  • ALL the dark academia! (e.g. I AM NOT JESSICA CHEN, BABEL)

  • Deeply flawed protagonists – the messier, the better

  • Our taste leans more toward writing that is commercial over literary – we love fast-paced plotting

  • Found families and fleshed-out side characters that matter

  • Books with themes that address or parallels societal and/or systemic issues (e.g. BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN discusses women in academia, xenophobia, role of academia in the rise of a colonial power; I FEED HER TO THE BEAST deals with racism, wealth & class disparity)

  • We love a romantic subplot with friends-to-lovers, academic-rivals-to-lovers, slow-burn romance

  • Unique formats, mixed media

THINGS WE AREN’T THE BEST FIT FOR

  • High, epic fantasy

  • Hard science fiction and space opera

  • Historical fantasy with a eurocentric setting

  • Paranormal elements (ghosts, vampires, werewolves…)

  • Retellings – unless it’s BIPOC and there’s a unique twist to the original story

  • Romantasy – we’re okay if romance is a subplot, but not as the centerpoint

  • Cyberpunk

  • Anything that glorifies the military, white supremacy, SA, misogyny, violence against women, and abuse of any kind

Books we are currently obsessed with

I AM NOT JESSICA CHEN (Ann Liang), BABEL (R.F. Kuang), BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN (M.L. Wang), I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME (Jamison Shea), JADE CITY (Fonda Lee), SUCH LOVELY SKIN (Tatianna Schlote-Bonne)