Author Interview with Ai Jiang
by J.D. Harlock

Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer and poet currently studying at the Humber School for Writers. Her poem “The Lantern Festival” was the first lunarpunk poem accepted into Solarpunk Magazine, and was published in Issue #6, November 2022. If you haven’t read Issue #6 yet, you can get a copy here.

Today Ai has agreed to sit down with our Poetry Co-Editor J.D. Harlock for a chat.

SPM: Tell us a little about yourself? 

AJ: It’s interesting to see the writer I have become, am becoming, am shaping into, and how my writerly identity has been greatly influenced by my readership and peers. Some know me as a horror writer, some know me through my literary work, some through poetry, some through sci-fi and fantasy. Though because my horror, dark fiction, dark fantasy is what predominantly gets sold first, I find myself rising in those particular genres’ communities much quicker than others. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what kind of writer I want to be and what I want to achieve with my writing, and I suppose I’d like to write in a broad range of genres and hopefully find a readership that might resonate with my work.

One genre I’d love to explore more though is lunarpunk since “The Lantern Festival” is the first piece I’ve written in the genre. My current novel attempts a blend of solarpunk, lunarpunk, and cyberpunk—taking a look at the resistant to change, along with the subjectivity of what a dystopia and utopia might look to each individual living within those societies.  

SPM: What inspired you to write this poem? What works/real-life events/philosophies did you draw inspiration from? Were you consciously trying to write a lunarpunk poem? 

AJ: I drew inspiration from Chinese Lantern Festivals, which is a tradition occurring on the fiftieth day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar. In a traditional sense, it is a festival in honour of deceased ancestors—though this may also vary—however, in “The Lantern Festival”, I reimagined the celebration and how it might evolve and become a more globally shared event, or an adjacent adaption of the event that promotes an international sense of community and connectedness. It was also interesting for me to reimagine lanterns as a source of renewable energy and as engineered entities that could provide the world with eco-friendly light sources.  

SPM: When and where did you first hear about the lunarpunk genre/movement? 

AJ: Given the newness of the genre, I heard about lunarpunk through Solarpunk Magazine. And shortly after encountering this lesser known genre, a new Korean Netflix series called The Silent Sea came out, which I thought could definitely be considered lunarpunk in a sense, given the premise of the story where (*minor spoiler*) there is an attempt to harvest lunar water in hopes of saving a barren earth. I’m keen to do further research on the genre as I work on more lunarpunk projects. 

SPM: What are your thoughts on lunarpunk? What does lunarpunk mean to you? How does it make you feel? Where do you think it’s headed?  

AJ: When I think of lunarpunk, I think of luminescent stories that take place moreso in the darkness rather than the light, with the moon as a backdrop. A gothic-cyberpunk-like aesthetic with more positive connotations, where the darkness is safe, fertile, “bright”. Although from what I read of lunarpunk, it seems the general direction tends towards an introversion and reflection of the self and environment rather than more community focused, I could see the genre developing in the direction of the collective connection—a coming together of individuals to celebrate the community. When I hear lunarpunk, I think of a small glow, pulsing, like an aura of dim, comforting light—something quiet, peaceful, and silent, though not in the eerie or haunting sense but a whimsical and mind-wandering sense.  

SPM: Was this your first experience working on a lunarpunk piece or did you work on something in the genre or adjacent genres (like hopepunk, cli-fi, etc) before?  

AJ: I’ve worked briefly with solarpunk, but this is the first piece I’ve ever done in the lunarpunk genre!

SPM: Do you have any other lunarpunk/lunarpunk-adjacent (hopepunk, cli-fi, etc.) pieces/projects in the works?  

AJ: I have a gothic-steampunk-second world fantasy novella focused on the impact of industrialism on the environment currently on submission with my agent. There are brief elements of lunarpunk and solarpunk that I’m keen to flesh out in the second of the series (should the first get picked up). 

SPM: Do you plan to revisit lunarpunk in the future?  

AJ: I’m very keen to revisit lunarpunk in the future. I think it’s a genre full of potential, as cliché as that might sound, and I’m intrigued to see the forthcoming interpretations of the genre!