Like most high school students in British Columbia, I had read Katherine Mansfield’s short story “Miss Brill” in English class. I found the story so compelling that I looked up The Collected Short Stories. The volume contained her published books of short fiction and a number of unfinished stories. (Mansfield’s promising literary career had been cut short in 1923 when she died of tuberculosis at the age of 34.) Although I do not remember my reaction to the rest of the collection, I do recall one story that stood out for me. The poignant ending of “The Doll’s House” brought tears to my eyes. It was the first time that literature had been able to elicit such a reaction from me. At the time, I didn’t know nor would have cared about Mansfield’s importance as a modernist writer. All I knew was admiration for the power that she wielded and the beauty of the story. That was many years ago but I still gauge the talent of a literary writer by their ability to move me to tears or laughter. For me, that is true art.
— Julia Lin is a graduate of Humber School for Writers’ Creative Writing Program. Her publications include a story collection, Miah; an anthology, AlliterAsian: Twenty Years of Ricepaper Magazine; and a biography, Shadows of the Crimson Sun: One Man’s Life in Manchuria, Taiwan, and North America. She lives in Vancouver. To learn more, please visit www.julialinbooks.com.
Julia Lin's story "Birdman of Beijing" will appear in Issue 306 (Winter 2026). You can pre-order Issue 306 now!
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