Liana Fu

Liana Fu is a writer grown from the sub/urban Midwest. She is currently studying Creative Writing and Comparative Race & Ethnic Studies at the University of Chicago, where she also edits for Blacklight Magazine, a journal dedicated to publishing creators of color. Her poetry appears in Occulum Journal and Ghost City Review, and her essays/articles appear in HuffPost, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Southside Weekly, and The Chicago Maroon. You can follow her tweeting @liana_lfu. 

DECEMBER NONFICTION: "HOW TO BUILD A HOME" BY LIANA FU

Grandpa drafted a blueprint for the treehouse when the cold shut us in and curved our bodies around steaming dinner dishes. 

Beheading fish is secondhand to my Grandpa. I watch him, crouched outside on the front lawn, send the silver-scaled head flying with one measured blow, a flashing blur in the sun. See, Yen Yen, this is how you do it. The blood soaks into the grass. I squat next to him, nodding with enough enthusiasm to topple my own skull off my bony shoulders. This is how you separate the body from the head.

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