In a special series direct from the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival Aube Rey Lescure chats with Irma about how she initially followed a friend’s advice not to become a writer but then ditched law to pursue it anyway, how being multilingual impacts the way she writes, why she refused to follow the career trajectory her creative writing course advised, why she got fixated on publishing a book before she was 30 – and then was forced to let go of it, how her mum’s April Fool’s joke led to an important plot line in her debut novel, how she approached writing from different POVs, why she let go of the need for external valuation – and was then shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the pressure of writing the second novel, the impact of her essay on women’s safety, what she learnt from the publication day disappointment of not finding her book in stores, and the phone call that made her squeal on the streets.

ABOUT AUBE REY LESCURE
Aube Rey Lescure is a French-Chinese-American writer. She grew up between Provence, northern China, and Shanghai, and graduated from Yale in 2015. Her debut novel, River East, River West, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024, and her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in Guernica, Best American Essays, The Florida Review online, and more. She has also co-authored and translated two books on Chinese politics and economics, and is the Deputy Editor at literary magazine Off Assignment.