We’re thrilled to announce Jewel Box, a luminous collection of short fiction by award-winning writer E. Lily Yu—acquired by Liz Gorinsky and edited by Sarah Guan, Jewel Box will be published in February 2023.
A luminous collection of short fiction by award-winning writer E. Lily Yu, Jewel Box showcases incandescent stories from a master of language that reflect and refract the sharp intimacies of our world, burning brilliant against the dark.
Angels, monsters, and bees. Birdwatchers, emperors, and prison wardens. These and more populate the twenty-two new and old stories from award-winning author E. Lily Yu, collected for the first time here in her debut short story collection. From her early innovative work that won her the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, such as “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees,” to recent short fiction such as “Small Monsters,” E. Lily Yu’s writing has continued to garner award nominations and recognition from the literary community for its faceted beauty, cutting edge, and uplifting heart.
Collecting award-winning stories from across her career alongside brand-new pieces, Jewel Box rings with stories of delight and tales of tremendous weight. At turns bittersweet and boundary-breaking, poignant and profound, this collection of stories sing, as the oldest stories do, of what it means to be alive in this strange, terrible, beautiful world.
From author E. Lily Yu:
Sixteen years after I began publishing stories, Erewhon will be bringing out a selection of them in book form, which makes me quietly and deeply glad. I have always been devoted to the print form, to the smell and touch of beautiful, thoughtful paper books and the space for privacy, calm, and interiority that they provide, and am very glad to be in the hands of a publisher known for creating just that. My deep thanks to Liz Gorinsky, who first said yes to the collection, to Sarah Guan, who is guiding the book the rest of the way, the whole team at Erewhon, and to the kind readers who make this all possible.
From editor Sarah Guan:
I’ve admired Lily’s short fiction since before she ever became an Erewhon author — and given all the accolades she’s received for her work over the years, it’s clear that many other readers feel the same way. Ergo, I’m thrilled that Erewhon is bringing a collection of her stories into the world, and that I have the opportunity to help shape it in some small way. Lily is such a thoughtful, graceful, and versatile writer; Jewel Box: Stories perfectly showcases the breadth of her range and the depth of her skill. It’s a great entry point for new readers and those who loved On Fragile Waves, and a wonderful collectible for Lily’s longtime fans. I can’t wait until all of you can pick it up in stores.
E. Lily Yu has published short fiction in venues from McSweeney’s to Tor.com. Her work has appeared in twelve best-of anthologies and been finalists for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards. Yu received the Artist Trust/LaSalle Storyteller Award in 2017 and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2012. She has lived on both coasts and holds degrees from Princeton and Cornell. Her debut novel, On Fragile Waves, was published by Erewhon Books in 2021. You can find her at elilyyu.com.
