Jorah Kai
“An emerging voice from the margins.”
Existential Detective | Welcome to the bazaar of the bizarre
Biography
Someone once told Jorah Kai to write what he knew, but since he was twelve and knew very little, the avid reader set off on a lifelong journey to master a variety of esoteric lore. He’s been a lifelong student, martial artist, musician, English teacher, writer, newspaper columnist, editor, web designer, dance music producer and touring DJ, Black Rock City existential detective and philosopher, fire-breathing gypsy circus performer, stand-up comedian, and family man—which offered many profound insights into the human condition before uprooting his life and moving to a city of 34 million people halfway across the planet.
Jorah Kai has been an English teacher in Chongqing, China, since 2014 and an editor for iChongqing, an English news desk for the 34-million-person cyberpunk metropolis, since 2018. His Chongqing Foreign Language School students have gone on to study at thousands of universities around the world, including some of the most prestigious, and he has guest-taught second- and third-year cross-cultural and literature classes on his work at the university level. Kai has taught adults and reporters to improve their writing style by contributing to a project called The Hemingway Course, using The Old Man and the Sea to teach better, tighter writing. He was the first Canadian journalist to report on the early Chinese outbreak and lockdown in 2020. He wrote a syndicated diary column for Chinese and Canadian (CTV News) audiences, which was expanded and published in 2020 as his first novel, the epistolary tale The Invisible War (Kai’s Diary) by Chinese New World Press in English and Chinese, which became an Amazon bestseller for China Books and then Canadian press Royal Collins in English for a second edition. Both the column and the book were celebrated as providing critical health information and guidance during an emergency. The Foreign Affairs Office designated it one of the top 10 foreign language books and 25 overall notable books published in China in 2020.
On October 31, 2022, Kai released his second book, a solarpunk fantasy novel he describes as somewhere between a “Chinese rock ‘n’ roll Harry Potter” and a “darker Alice in Wonderland.” He published it with More Publishing, a new imprint he’s helping to establish to support English writers in China in sharing their stories. He plans to release the Chinese version of the book to the Chinese and global markets in 2024 with a publisher whose previous credits include the international smash hit The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, whom he met in 2023 at the Chengdu Worldcon alongside Canadian sci-fi royalty Robert J. Sawyer.
Kai hopes his work makes the world a little more creative, hopeful, and proactive about how we treat our beautiful planet. On April 1, 2025, his newest novel, The Sun Also Rises on Cthulhu, is set to release—a reimagining that will send chills down your spine as it blends the existential despair of Hemingway’s Lost Generation with Lovecraftian terror. If you liked Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you’ll love The Sun Also Rises on Cthulhu, a cinematic, literary horror for the ages, celebrating Hemingway’s original a century after its first publication.
Kai enjoys conversing in foreign languages because they are more mysterious. He also enjoys playing guitar and eating pizza as much as he hopes you love this book. He lives with his large and loving family at the confluence of two mighty rivers, the Yangtze and the Jialing, spending many years as a human being and then forever after as the most immortal of all supernatural beasts—a writer.
Awards & Honors
Jorah Kai’s work has been honored with several international awards, including an Award of Achievement in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, and a journalism award from the Chongqing Journalists Association. The Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) of China recognized his book as one of the top 10 foreign language books published in 2020 and one of the top 25 books published in China for 2020. The Ministry of Information also recognized his book The Invisible War (Kai’s Diary) for disseminating critical information during a public health crisis.
Newsletter
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Bibliography
Influences
Jorah Kai has been influenced by many writers but holds a special adoration for the works of William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, Lewis Carroll, Oscarf Wilde, Mary Shelley, Douglas Adams, Robert J. Sawyer, Stephen Graham Jones, Ta-Nahesi Coates, George R. R. Martin, Liu Cixin, Patrick Rothfuss, R. A. Salvatore, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Margaret Weis, Stephen King, Roger Zelazny, Anne Rice, Victor Hugo, Albert Camus, Pablo Neruda, Ursula K. Le Guin, J. R. R. Tolkien, Maya Angelou, Robert A. Heinlein, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, H. P. Lovecraft as well as many fine contemporaries and young authors of his age.
