Julia Merican

is a writer, editor, and artist❦

Julia Desiree Merican is a writer from Kuala Lumpur and an archivist of small scraps of human experience. She holds a Master of Studies in English (1900 - Present) from Oxford and a Writing MA from the Royal College of Art.Her words have appeared in various print and digital publications, and once, quite excitingly, on an unfurling scroll in a gallery. For more personal scrawls, she invites you to subscribe to her occasional newsletter, Glimmers and Inklings.Currently, Julia lives in London and is finding writing in the third person quite a lot of fun. She thinks often about liminal or ruined spaces, the ancillary prettiness of an em dash, how heritage is made and broken, and the art of living so gently you barely make a sound.If you're interested in commissioning her work, you can reach her at [email protected].

Plain Things for Lustrous
ANTIGONE EDITIONS, 2026

Kuala Lumpur Launch: A+ Works of Art, August 2026London Launch: Reference Point, September 2026

A young woman meets her father for the first time as they set out on a road trip through her hometown. Over late-night suppers, seaside visits, tea in the highlands, and cave treks near where her mother grew up, they talk about books, belief, and lingering attachments. As the landscape shifts, so does the delicate space between them, and long-buried memories begin to surface.Both an elegy for lost time and a cartography of reunion between strangers, Plain Things for Lustrous is a psychological portrait of love, inheritance, and the luminous power of what we reveal and conceal in the stories we tell each other.

"While reading this slender novel, I felt enveloped by it, calmed, yet glad too when bluntness came. Quiescent, verdant, and beautifully atmospheric."— Amina Cain

criticismat the core of it OXFORD REVIEW OF BOOKS, 2021
dressing up for noodles MULA ZINE, 2022
the directness of apples LINSEED JOURNAL, 2022
monitoring the belt and road initiative THE EDGE, 2022
diasporic dysphoria WASAFIRI, 2023
the power of critical sensemaking in shaping futures SUPERFLUX, 2024
serious play SUPERFLUX, 2025


exhibition textsfragmented bodies: the personal and the public STPI GALLERY, 2019
hidden lines FRANCIS GALLERY, 2021


fictionsmeta morphosis SINE THETA, 2020
unlucky AESTHETICA, 2020
proximity OBSCURAS, 2024


impressionsgallery in a state of undress CHA JOURNAL, 2023
allom! amatai! allom! C MAGAZINE, 2023
only lemons: will calver’s lovely, ordinary, perishable things TOLKA, 2024
playing the fool ARE WE THERE YET?, 2024
random access memory MKH, 2025
yula kim's avian archipelagos MKH, 2025
qloud collective's poems of creation MKH,
the end of the good story REVIEW31, 2025
a seat at the table CHA JOURNAL, 2026
meeting the moment CHA JOURNAL, 2026


interviewshow i settle myself OXFORD REVIEW OF BOOKS, 2021
a conversational art with larissa pham OXFORD REVIEW OF BOOKS, 2021
an interview with amina cain TOLKA, 2024
tea and frequency PROCESS MAGAZINE, 2024


personal essaysbeing foreign, abroad and at home MUSOTREES, 2020
the olive branch and the poetics of reconciliation LINSEED JOURNAL, 2024
minding the gaps: a sonic essay ART ON THE UNDERGROUND, 2024
protecting the flame MULA ZINE, 2024


poetrykintsugi OUTHOUSE MAGAZINE, 2025


traveloguesthe cerebral and the sensual CEREAL, 2020
let the land be NEW MANDALA, 2022
a silent dwelling CEREAL, 2022
signs of the times SEARCH MAGAZINE, 2023

editorial work
granta magazine READER, 2019 - 2025
cereal magazine COPYEDITOR, 2020 - 2021
the oxford review of books EDITOR, 2020 - 2021
studio macbride CREATIVE COPYWRITER, 2023 - 2024
search magazine EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, 2023 - 2024
the dodo newspaper CO-EDITOR, 2023 - 2024
superflux WRITER + RESEARCHER, 2024 - 2025
the key press EDITOR, 2024 - present