Noelle Q. de Jesus is a translator, editor, and fiction writer at the Iowa International Writing Program. Her works have been featured at literary festivals in the U.S., the Philippines and Singapore. Her 2015 novel, “Blood: Collected Stories,” won the Next Generation Book Award in 2016.

De Jesus has previously edited flash and micro fiction anthologies and translated them from Tagalog, the mother tongue of the Philippines. Her work has been featured in literary journals like Puerto del Sol, Fiction Attic Press and The Art and Craft of Asian Stories. She will read from her novel at the UI’s Shambaugh House on Friday from 5-6 p.m.

The Daily Iowan: How has living in Iowa City been for you?

Noelle Q. de Jesus: I’ve learned in the month and a half that I’ve been here that the University of Iowa is pitching itself as a writing university, and they have the right to do so, as the Iowa City UNESCO writing city and the programs that it offers. Not just the Writers’ Workshop, but also the translation [program]. [The university] has a Spanish Creative Writing MFA program, which is important because Spanish is widely spoken in the U.S., and it has a Literary Translation MFA, important because global literature has to come and be made available to the greater English-speaking world, specifically the United States. Iowa City is really quite an amazing place when you think about all the ways that people can write here.

How has the international writing program been for you?

Amazing. It is also a wonderful way to connect with different writers with books already established.

What advice would you give to writers?

There are lots of people who do things even though they don’t love it. Just because you are able to do it, doesn’t mean that you need to. But that’s the hardest part, deciding what you want to do. I think the younger generations are more [the type to] only do what they love because they understand that now. Back in my day, people were saying, “Why are you giving up your advertising job? You’re good at it, and it makes good money!” And I was like, “But I don’t love it.”

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It has to be a balance.

But, you also have to make some money. I’ve written stories to sell a product, or a service, or to describe a service that needs to put out information in an engaging way. That’s creative writing. So I think that’s a good path for people who want to write fiction but who aren’t necessarily going to be the next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling; find other ways to use your craft in everyday life.