Indies Introduce Q&A with Gloria L. Huang

Gloria L. Huang is the author of Kaya of the Ocean, a Winter/Spring 2025 Indies Introduce young adult selection, and January/February 2025 Kids’ Next List pick. 

Jonathan Pope of Prologue Bookshop in Columbus, Ohio, served on the bookseller panel that selected Huang’s book for Indies Introduce.

Pope said of Huang’s book, “Kaya of the Ocean is an absolutely gorgeous story, shining a light on the very real struggles of growing up and feeling like you are different. With incredibly heartfelt writing and a vivid setting, Kaya’s story can help young people that struggle with anxiety feel seen and heard.”

Gloria L. Huang is an author of middle grade novels. Her short stories have been published in literary journals, including The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and Witness Magazine, among others. She holds a degree in English literature from Stanford University. 

Hi, Gloria, thanks for joining us.

Gloria Huang: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

JP: I want to kick things off just knowing a little about the inspiration behind Kaya of the Ocean.

GH: There were two sources of inspiration, really. The first one was that, in recent years, I — along with many other people, I'm sure — witnessed a lot of people, but especially children having to struggle with higher levels of anxiety. And I feel like children have the tendency to internalize anxiety as something that's wrong with them, since it's often the first time they've encountered it. I wanted to write a book that showed them that there's power in accepting all parts of who they are, even their imperfections.

The second inspiration was that I wanted to tell this specific story by weaving in threads from my cultural history. When you read it, there are easter eggs — especially in the flashbacks — that were loosely inspired by events that happened in my family's history.

I also wanted to send her Mazu, who's this fascinating Chinese water goddess. I've always been intrigued by her because she's this strong female figure that rose to deification and worship before it was common for strong female figures to exist in that space. She is still worshiped to this day, but I haven't seen that much written about her, especially in the fictional middle grade sphere, so I wanted to incorporate her as well.

JP: I'm glad that you brought up the flashbacks and maybe that reference in your family history. I definitely want to hop into that, but first, in regards to creating a character that is dealing with serious anxiety: in terms of middle grade fiction and the children's genre in general, it seems like authors are leaning really heavily into discussing real issues that young children are facing. How did you kind of balance that, creating that for middle grade audiences without making it too much or too heavy?

GH: That's a really good question. I've also noticed there's an increase in discussing these kind of serious topics and I am really glad to see it. It's important for children who are dealing with this to be able to see these characters that they grow to love going through something similar.

As for how to balance: For me, it was important to stay true to the experience of dealing with anxiety. And while I do deal with a certain level of anxiety, what Kaya experiences is more what I've seen people close to me deal with. I wanted to kind of respect and honor that authentically in my story.

Part of dealing with anxiety is that it's not an all or nothing experience. You have moments of extreme anxiety, but there are also moments of calm and moments of levity. And I think that this back and forth can be terrifying for people, but especially for a young child. So part of my mission was to create an accurate and genuine portrait of all the facets of Kaya's experience. So sometimes anxiety is dominating, but it doesn't eclipse the levity and joy that her friends bring, and it doesn't erase this complicated love that exists between her and her parents.

JP: You can definitely feel that in the book. There were so many great moments. You can tell that there is a ton of love that goes into this character and this story. So when you were creating Kaya, in reference to your family history, what kind of research did you kind of have to do? Did you have to have some conversations to find out ways to insert that past into this story?

GH: Yes, some of it. Research makes it sound a bit more scholarly than it really was. Ever since I was little, my father has told me stories about our family history. So the flashback with Shanhu — where they're escaping on the boat — that actually happened to a neighbor of my father's family. It was his sister that was almost on that boat. Inspiration sounds like a horrible word, because it was clearly a tragedy, but that was the source from where that story came about.

Some of the other pieces, for example, the Gold Rush, I did more research into. Also fishing villages and just keeping true to that time. I wanted to make sure that I was as accurate as possible. I don't claim to be a historical fiction specialist, but I did want whatever I had to be accurate and as genuine as possible.

JP: Kaya of the Ocean is your debut novel. Is this what you imagined your first book would be?

GH: That's such a good question, and it's also a difficult one. As authors, we all fall in love with the current book that we're creating, and we all imagine introducing it to the world so that other people can fall in love with the characters that we're spending so much time with. To that point, yes, I would definitely say that Kaya is the book of my heart, and I definitely imagined it being my first novel.

But I've also been writing “novels” since I was a child. I imagine every single one of them as debuts, too. That being said, it's been an amazing journey. It's both what I imagined, and also more in a lot of ways.

JP: Why do you think this one made it to this final form?

GH: I think it's a couple things. One of which is that emphasis on focusing on the things children experience, like anxiety. It's becoming more normalized to talk about it, which is so important. I think the fact that I had seen people very close to me and children very close to me go through this, lent it a bit of authenticity that was recognized. That's what I hope, anyways.

This might be wishful thinking, but I also think that there is more of an appetite for different cultural contexts. And I really wanted to share that part of my familial and cultural history and hopefully that was also something that was attractive, that people picked up on and were like, “this is really interesting. I want to include this voice. I want this voice in the canon.” That's what I hope.

JP: I definitely think so. You see so many different elements with Kaya's family and the conversations that are happening in the book, for example, about tourism on the island. Kaya, as a complex character who is dealing with anxiety, is also a reader who is very much in her own space. What do you imagine for the reader that picks up this book?

GH: I always try and keep my readers in mind when I'm writing. I'm half in the character's head and then half in my reader's head. Kaya is an amalgamation of so many things, people, and children that inspired me, as well as parts of myself, but also how I imagine readers to be. And so for readers who might be going through something similar, either with anxiety or something else, I really hope that they read it and themselves reflected back a little. I hope they see that they're not alone, and that other people go through this. And I hope they take away the message that all the parts of who they are — all the strengths and the flaws — are what make them powerful. Accepting all those parts should be the goal, not hiding or changing themselves like Kaya initially tries to.

There's a line that's spoken by Kaya’s dad in the book, “quexian mei.” It's a Chinese expression that my grandfather used to say a lot, and it basically means that things are more beautiful when they're imperfect or flawed. And I hope that that's the takeaway.

JP: Wow. I love that. There actually was one line towards the beginning, Kaya said, “I asked my mom why I didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes like so many of the girls in my books. My Mom replied, distractedly, ‘Doesn't matter. Work hard, be successful, then write your own books with Chinese girls.’ ” Was that your own voice poking through?

GH: You are 1,000% correct. That was really my own voice. I also wanted to honor what I think children of Asian immigrant parents often hear, especially if they're going into a more artistic sphere, or if they're having those kind of thoughts. There is kind of a tendency to be to like, “It doesn't matter, focus on the end goal.” A lot of Kaya’s mom's love comes out kind of like that, which is very true for Asian immigrant parents. But the heart of what she was saying was a message to my former self, and maybe any other child out there who needs to hear that.

JP: So when you were growing up, in terms of the literature that you were reading, what were the books that that kind of inspired you? 

GH: It is going to age me a little. Some of my favorite books that really made a difference: I loved Tuck Everlasting. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle was another great book that was really meaningful, because there weren’t a lot of books out there that centered a young girl as the protagonist in an adventure. That was really exciting for me. But I also like books like Little Women, which were, even back then, a bit ahead of their time, because they were centering these women who were doing what they could with what they had.

On the more commercial side, I was an avid consumer of The Babysitters Club, which I think is back in style now in graphic novel form, which is really cool. But one of the characters in The Babysitters Club is named Claudia Kishi, and she was mind-blowingly ahead of her time. She was a Japanese American character who was artistic, and fashionable, and not at all bookish, and there wasn't anyone else out there like her at that time in middle grade literature. I think you'll find a lot of Asian Americans who grew up with The Babysitters Club were big fans of hers.

I also read the Sweet Valley Twins series, and I loved them at the time, but they're an example of books in which I couldn't find anyone who was like me. And I think they're kind of an example of why diverse voices are important. When I think back on it, it's surprising, because they were set in Southern California, but there wasn't a lot of diversity in them. 

JP: What do you hope for the future? Especially for an audience like middle grade students?

GH: I really hope that the future of middle grade fiction will continue including more diverse voices and stories, and I hope that the wider audience stays open to these stories and voices. Even if they might not feel familiar at first, they have something important to say.

Middle grade fiction is this super important genre, but sometimes people don't realize it's importance. It's read by children at this point in their lives where they're experiencing extreme change. It can be exciting and it can be unsettling. It can be scary. It's an upheaval. A lot of children turn to books for comfort — that's what I did as a child — and I think that it can be painful if you look for yourself and don't see yourself reflected back. This is a long winded way of saying that I hope that middle grade literature continues to welcome different voices, and allows children to see who they are reflected in these stories, but also shares these different experiences with other children at a time when they're really impressionable. Then we can see all the differences, but we can also see the shared commonalities, if that makes sense.

JP: It definitely does. I always tell my friends and readers that come into the bookstore that middle grade literature is some of my favorite. It's definitely on the cutting edge of things, and the writing is always absolutely amazing, especially in that fantasy space.

What are you currently reading? What have you been picking up?

GH: I actually love talking about that, because I am a voracious reader. Not to keep going back to middle great fiction, but another important thing is that it's the gateway for so many children into these different worlds, but also into the love of reading and writing and art and creation. So I try to read a variety of things.

As you mentioned, I write adult literary short stories. So I will read adult fiction — usually do more literary stories — and then I try and read some young adult and middle grade as well. Middle grade, obviously, because it's what I write in, and I want to keep my voice as fresh as possible. Young adult because I want to have nuances in my voice and be able to pull in all those influences.

There’s one middle grade book I read, not super recently, that's just really stayed with me. It’s called When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller, and it’s just this beautiful and haunting depiction of grief and the complicated love between generations of a family — the daughter and mother and grandmother — and it’s couched in this really intricate and nuanced cultural context. It’s just beautiful, I love it.

I think for young adult, I tend a little bit more towards dystopic. For adults, recently I read Yellowface, which was a really, really interesting satirical take on the publishing industry. 

JP: I love that. Yellowface, that book was a wild ride!

GH: It really was.

JP: Was there anything that you had to take out of the book that you might have struggled with?

GH: I actually had to revise the character of Kaya’s mom a few times. I think that anyone who has an Asian American immigrant mother will probably know this, but a lot of times they will toe the line between strict and loving. In the earlier versions, a couple of my beta readers were like, “She seems a little mean. She seems a little bit overly tough.” So I really needed to soften her edges to make sure that her love for Kaya could shine through. I didn't want that to obscure anything. So that was something that definitely got revised in the editorial process.

JP: I like Kaya's mother.

GH: Good. I'm glad!

JP: Your debut is complete. It's all set to be released in January. What is next?

GH: I'm one of those people who are always writing my next project. I can't exist without working on something, and I'm happiest if I have a couple of projects in the pipeline. Once I finish something, I'll usually step away for a little bit and refill the creative well. I'll try to read books and watch films or shows, hopefully in the genre I'm writing in. But then I go back to it. I’m working on a couple of things, but short stories are always a good way for me to jump into a project. A lot of my short stories actually become seeds from which novels later grow. That's a good way for me to brainstorm. I start with short stories, and then I’m like, “this could be a book.”

JP: So we maybe have a short story collection to look forward to?

GH: That would be great! I would love that.

JP: Awesome. I'm glad we had a chance to have this conversation. Kaya of the Ocean is a super inspiring book. I absolutely loved it, so I'm looking forward to it being released on January 7. Is there anything else that you want to tell readers about Kaya of the Ocean as we're preparing for its release?

GH: Thank you to everybody who has preordered, anyone who's supported me in any way, and also anyone who reads this and spends some time with Kaya and her friends. Thank you for doing that, and I hope it's meaningful. I hope that the experience that Kaya goes through is uplifting and helpful, even just a little bit, for you.

JP: Kaya of the Ocean is going to be released on January 7, 2025. By the time you're listening to this, the book should be out. This was a great conversation with Gloria Huang. And thank you for listening.

GH: Thanks so much. This was so much fun!

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Kaya of the Ocean by Gloria L. Huang (Holiday House, 9780823457885, Hardcover Middle Grade Fantasy, $17.99) On Sale: 1/7/2025

Find out more about the author at glorialaihuang.com.

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