ABOUT
Bio
Siang Lu is the Miles Franklin-winning author of Ghost Cities and the ABIA-winning The Whitewash, the co-creator of The Beige Index and the creator of #sillybookstagram.
Ghost Cities was shortlisted for eight additional awards including the ALS Gold Medal, the Voss Literary Prize, and The Age Book of the Year. In 2026, Ghost Cities will be published with Simon & Schuster's Summit UK and US imprints, and in 24 territories in translation thereafter.
Siang is based in Brisbane, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Unsure of how to pronounce 'Siang'?
Click below for an audio pronunciation, although wouldn't it be funny if you clicked this expecting a pronunciation guide and instead it was just some hectic techno MP3?
Silly Bookstagram
Siang's publisher forced him to set up an Instagram, but unwisely failed to specify what sort of content it should contain. So Siang thought, "Why waste time write book when Silly PhotoShop do trick?"
Thus was born #sillybookstagram, where Siang defaces books by his author friends.
For reasons that would take too long to explain, Siang is also Official BFFs with Kinokuniya Sydney, and is in a Situationship with Readings — Australia's largest independent bookstore — it's complicated, alright? Together with Dymocks George St and Better Read Than Dead in Sydney, they have formed part of a Taylor-like squad, where they do things like 💅👯♀️ and 🥂.