- Once upon a time, I was addicted to a salon.
— First Line, All Will Be Well, in the 11 March 2019 New Yorker
Opening Sentence of the Day: Yiyun Li
April 13, 2019 at 11:43 pm (Artists and Writers, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Saturday, short story, The New Yorker
More From Gary Kamiya
March 18, 2019 at 4:06 am (Artists and Writers, Books, destinations, Explorers, Personal Bookshelf, Places, Recommended, Sundays)
Tags: Asian American Writers, discoveries, essays, history, nonfiction, Salon.com, San Francisco
Love Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco. Reading the essays in it painstakingly slowly.
Gary Kamiya was one of the founders of Salon.com (still going strong!). An ex-fellow Fellow from Stanford, Jim Paul, used to write for them. As did Chitra Divakaruni. As did Laura Miller. As did Heather Havrilesky.
Self is on Essay # 5, The Harbor at the End of the World:
A 1508 map by Johannes Ruysch depicts South America as the New World, with Asia in the place where North America actually is.
Private beach access for this homeowner along the Mendocino coast
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Gary Kamiya Again
February 25, 2019 at 12:28 am (Books, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Sundays)
Tags: Asian American Writers, discoveries, favorites, nonfiction, San Francisco, science writing
- Hundreds of giant bison, weighing two tons and standing more than eight feet high, headed through the Golden Gate on their seasonal migration, next to the roaring river . . . At the top of the food chain stood the American lion and the short-faced bear.
— from The Alcatraz Triangle, Ch. 3 of Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco
San Francisco, Viewed From Point Richmond: February 2015
View of the Mendocino Headlands from Main Street
Tomorrow, straight to the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Sentence of the Day: Gary Kamiya
February 24, 2019 at 6:14 pm (Books, destinations, Personal Bookshelf, Places, Sundays, Surprises)
Tags: Asian American Writers, discoveries, history, nonfiction, San Francisco
The oldest skeleton found in the City is that of a female, unearthed during excavation for the Civic Center BART station in 1969, dating to about 5,000 years ago.
— from Cool Gray City of Love, Chapter 3: The Alcatraz Triangle
Fourth Sunday of February 2019
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
CHARLIE CHAN IS DEAD, Vol. 1
February 5, 2019 at 8:56 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Books, Family, Filipino Writers, Memoirs, Publishers, Relatives, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, grief, illness, Mayor of the Roses, medicine, memoir, memories, Miami University Press, short story, teaching, writing process
For the workshop this weekend, re-reading some old stories to show different ways of writing memoir. In particular, thinking of a story called Lenox Hill, December 1991, which Jessica Hagedorn included in the anthology Charlie Chan is Dead.
When Jessica contacted self to solicit a piece, self had nothing, nothing, nothing.
Her sister had died just the month before. She did keep a diary, though.
The diary became the story. The first story in what later become a cycle of grief stories: Mayor of the Roses (Miami University Press)
For a while, a course called Ethics in Medicine, taught at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, included the story in their syllabus.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Excerpt: First Causes (Quarterly West # 89)
January 3, 2019 at 5:38 pm (Artists and Writers, Conversations, Filipino Writers, Publishers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, experimental, Literary Magazines, science fiction, short story, writing process
Yesterday, someone on Twitter posted a question to the Asian American writing community: share your 2018 achievements. Self’s response began with: “I am an experimental science fiction writer.” Which she’s sure had people scratching their heads.
To explain what she meant by “experimental science fiction writer”, here’s an excerpt from a story that Quarterly West published in Issue #89. The story takes place in a classroom of the future. The narrator is a boy named Dragon who is NOT a dragon. The professor, who really IS turning into a lizard, is named Fire Lizard. The other characters are Drinker, Knot, and Big. Big’s just gone missing.
Drinker says, low, “Big passed.”
I answer: “Fucker. Big’s not Big. He’s Big XXX. Mark it.” I slash three quick XXX’s across my screen. Knot looks to the side quickly, then glances down.
“The All-Powerful, the Everlasting,” I start to sing, lowly.
Drinker shudders, pulls slightly out of his seat.
“You!” Fire Lizard screams, pointing at Drinker. “What’s your issue?”
“Obscure,” Drinker mutters.
Fire Lizard’s eyes seem to bug out of his head. “Who remembers rain?” he shouts. “Last rain? Who remembers?”
I hold up my hand. “Ghost of,” I say. “243 days since.”
Self would like to take this opportunity to express her gratitude to Quarterly West for taking a chance and accepting this story. It’s wild, it’s crazy, it’s not easy to understand. But did she ever have fun writing it.
Stay tuned.
Just Out: PRAIRIE SCHOONER, Fall 2018
October 31, 2018 at 1:42 pm (Artists and Writers, Links, Lists, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Just published, Literary Magazines, short story
Cover piece is by artist Amanda Smith.
The opening piece is Demographic Futures, a short story by Phong Nguyen. Nguyen is the author of two short story collections and, most recently, the novel The Adventures of Joe Harper.
There is also fiction by Nigerian writer Jekwu Anyaegbuna and award-winning writer Cyril Dabydeen.
There is poetry by Cave Canem fellow Mary Moore Easter, Cody Smith, and Osel Jessica Plante, and essays by Sian Griffiths (about San Jose’s Winchester Mystery House!), Caroline Crew, and Evanthia Bromiley.
And so many other fine writers self doesn’t have time or space to list, but go over to Prairie Schooner and explore for yourselves.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Really Enjoying JADE CITY
October 21, 2018 at 1:37 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Recommended, Traveling, Women Writers)
Tags: Annaghmakerrig, artists residency, Asian American Writers, discoveries, fantasy, Ireland, novel, reading lists, Sundays, Tyrone Guthrie Centre
This is the 2nd of four science fiction books self has with her at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig.
And she ended up working on her historical fiction here (and one horror story).
#lifeyouknow #crazylikethat
She skimmed through The Stone Sky and was operating at serious disadvantage since she was reading the end of a trilogy and didn’t know what a Syl Anagist was or anything. But she was able to piece it together.
Plus, it was a mother-daughter angst story, which self will admit is not her favorite.
When she began Jade City she was quite disheartened to be reading about so many different characters. But the crusty old grandfather intrigued her. And now she’s met Shae, the prodigal daughter.
INTERESTING.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Saturday Reads: GOING HOME TO A LANDSCAPE
September 8, 2018 at 2:57 pm (anthologies, Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Events, poetry, Readings, The Philippines
NO SLEEP
by Catalina Cariaga
Moonlight fills our bedroom
through slats of open blinds.
The brightness of ninety-nine horizontal candles
reveals your expectant smile.
Don’t touch my breasts
while I’m reading,
You knew I was a writer
when you married me.
Copies on sale, today only, at the Redwood City Public Library, 1044 Middlefield, Redwood City.
Stay tuned.
“Lamentation” by Veronica Montes: An Excerpt
September 7, 2018 at 3:36 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Events, Filipino writers, Readings, Redwood City, The Philippines
Cover of Benedicta Takes Wing by Monterey Artist Jean Vengua
The collection is called Benedicta Takes Wing, and you are crazes if you are anywhere near the Redwood City Main Library (1044 Middlefield at Jefferson) and you do not drive straight over on Saturday, 8 Sept, 2:30 p.m., the Fireplace Room, to hear Veronica Montes and fellow writer Lillian Howan read, from their respective books! Crazes!
Veronica Montes, author of Benedicta Takes Wing: Stories (Philippine America Literary House, 2017)
Self will excerpt from Lillian’s book, The Charm Buyers, next.
“Lamentation” opens thus:
Her name was like a song: Maria Josefa Gabriela Cariño Silang. I wish I had given it to her.
* * * *
In the province of Ilocos Sur, there is a barrio called Canlogan. It sits in the shadow of a mountain range that rises up like an enormous hand telling you to stop, telling you there is no way to pass. But the mountains are not as impenetrable as they seem; they are sliced through with rivers, each one running swift and strong. This is where my daughter, who I did not name, was born.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
