Hana Choi’s project for the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program is a piece of short fiction that takes place at an immigrant detention center. The piece focuses on a group of detainees who perform a séance to summon the spirits of their fellow inmates who committed suicide. In her conversation with curator Priscilla Long, she speaks about her decision to start writing, her perspective on who she writes for, and her experience working as a pro bono lawyer for detained asylum seekers. “I’m an immigrant, so I often write about immigrants. And my Jack Straw project about detained immigrants, I think their stories need to be told more. More often. More loudly.”

Music by Bryan Smith, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.