Nghi Vo
Nghi Vo is the author of the novels Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful, as well as the acclaimed novellas Mammoths at the Gates, Into the Riverlands, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and The Empress of Salt and Fortune, a Locus and Ignyte Award finalist and the winner of the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.
Q: How did the idea for SIREN QUEEN come about?
A: Essentially, I was chatting with my friend Grace, and sorta out of nowhere, I said “Hey Grace, have you ever thought that old-school Hollywood was a lot like fairyland? There’s the promise of eternal youth and beauty, the old kings rule their little patch of forever with iron fists and binding contracts, you can lose everything, you can changes your face, you can gain it all by being lucky or brave or beautiful, and... and they take your name and give you another one, oh wow...” And Grace let me ramble for like 2 hours or so on this topic, very tolerantly, because I think before that we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner, and when I had talked myself out, I ‘met’ Luli, the protagonist, whose birth name I think I know, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Q: The choice to combine magical surrealism and Hollywood felt so natural and we discussed in the meeting how easy it was to immerse ourselves in this world. How did you come up with the magic system? What inspirations did you draw from?
A: Aw man, I’m like hilariously bad at magic systems. I have so much respect and admiration for people with well-thought out magic systems, but I’ve never created one I wanted to use in a story. Instead, I typically cognate magic to power, as in, there’s a ton of different varieties of it, some people wield it better than others, they come into conflict all the time, and sometimes, you just don’t know if rock beats scissors; it should, but.
I think I really skate by on the fact that Siren Queen’s magic system, such that it is, is the magic of folktales and fairy tales. Why does Baba Yaga’s mortar and pestle fly? Why does the goose-girl’s horse’s head talk? When we hear those stories, we don’t necessarily stop to think about those things (though it can be great fun to do so). Our concerns lie with whether Baba Yaga is going to eat us or who is gonna end up dancing in red-hot iron shoes at the end.
As you can probably tell, I drew tons of inspirations from various folk traditions throughout the world, with a lot of emphasis on the fairies and supernatural entities of northern Europe. It pushed the fish out of water feeling for Luli, who has no connection to that region or its magic, and has to learn on the fly. In a lot of ways, it’s a diaspora story. I also have a deep love of 1930s movies to draw on and a huge crush on Marlene Dietrich, which helped shape a lot of it.
These Sapphic Stories Book Club author profiles are compiled by founder Aliya Bree Hall. Aliya is a freelance journalist and author who founded the book club in 2021 to uplift sapphic stories and celebrate LGBTQ+ authors. This excerpt has been lifted from an interview Aliya conducted with our September 2023 author. You can read the full Q&A by joining the book club.
