Kaitlyn Davisio, an undergraduate radio journalist, DJ, and social justice advocate at the University of California Irvine, asked me to do a short interview with her on KUCI about the NRA.
Read MoreProbably Nothing, Maybe Something, Nah Probably Nothing
So, an editor that I deeply admire at a major imprint just started reading DREAM POP ORIGAMI, my experimental memoir about patchwork hapa identity, and of course my internal dialogue for the past week has been nothing but:
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Being Part of the Hapa Project
I volunteered to have my picture taken for Kip Fulbeck's 2017-2018 photographic project known as Hapa Me, not knowing whether my picture (which for the record, I don't love) would be included in the 2018 collection. I received an email a few months later telling me that I was either in the installation or in the book, or both. The suspense was killing me.
Read MoreLearning about my Genetic Identity
I got my DNA results back today.
Read MoreThe Slowness of Being on Submission
I'm writing this entry mostly for myself, but also for other aspiring literary fiction writers looking for blog entries about what it's like going on submission as a literary fiction writer.
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My Debut Hypertext
Literary/Speculative Hypertext Published
Imagine smashing speculative fiction, literary fiction, romance, and apocalyptic fiction into a hybrid, multimedia work, and you have a basic idea of what Dukkha, My Love is, at least conceptually.
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A new litmus test for APIA literary fiction
(My) Ten Rules for APIA, Asian American, and Hapa Fiction
Like the Bechdel Test, these ten rules are not intended to be the final word on any work by, from, or about Asian American literature, but rather, should be treated as the first critical lens that readers (can) use to call out and contest orientalism in publishing while also serving as a mandatory metric by which all readers (can) hold APIA writing accountable, as well as the presses that publish those works by and about us. The following test allows all of us to expect more of ourselves, of our readers, and of the publishing industry at large, but it is only a first step in a life of engaged reading.
Read MoreShort Story Published in Witness
Before the insurrection on Halloween, the security guard considered himself an atheist and a cynic, but there are some things too hard to understand, things without precedent, and one of them is a polished ten-inch Colt Python Revolver pointed directly up your nostrils.
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Alternate title: "Male Characters in Search of Female Characters who Can Force them to Get out of their Daily Routine and Finally Evolve"
Essay about Murakami's Men Without Women Published in Ploughshares
Men Without Women is a familiar, easily identifiable, and oddly comforting book for the Murakami reader, privileging the emotional landscape of lonely Japanese men through scaffolding characterization, personal idiosyncrasy, and monkey-wrench narratives instead of dramatic Hollywood plot lines, food porn, or cultural didacticism.
Read More2nd Piece Accepted in 2017
My short story about class/race in Humboldt Park, "Guide to the Other Side of the Universe," which is part of my short story collection, Geography of Desire, was accepted yesterday in the Angel City Review, an awesome LA-based literary journal. Stay tuned for more deetz!
Essay about Dishonored 2 (and Class Stockholm Syndrome in the Steampunk Genre) Published in PLOUGHSHARES
Few things push plot lines as well as vengeance in drama and leveling up in RPGs, which is why Dishonored 2, despite its many flaws, integrates plot, adventure, and history effortlessly into a unified field, centering its narrative on the propulsive quest of assassination and personal redemption. Much like Victorian morality in the nineteenth century, this game is a Manichean fantasy world of good and evil.
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My Dual Interview with Karen Tei Yamashita and Celeste Ng Published in Ploughshares
The Western canon has no objective nomination process, which is why it is both axiomatic and controversial. Literature written by (and often for) white writers is still treated as classic, crucial, and central to our literary archive, codifying a clear but tacit anglonormativity. But why have APIA voices been erased from the so-called “Great Books” for so long, and how should APIA writers respond to this longstanding erasure?
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Short Story Published in Arts & Letters
After mom got remarried to a white architect, my twin brother and I moved to Wacker Drive to live in the future. For Yoshi and me, the honeycombed Marina Towers were a time warp to another dimension.
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My Dual Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen and Charles Baxter Published in Ploughshares
The Sympathizer forces readers of Asian American Pacific Islander (APIA) literary fiction to reconsider our own craft dogma and ask questions about the value of literary didacticism all over again: when is didactic literature useful, even necessary, and what purposes can it serve in our society as art, historiography, and also racial, cultural, and moral education?
Read MoreRevisions Are Done!
I've been working tirelessly with my agent on my revisions for The Ninjas of My Greater Self for a solid three months now and we are finally done with the substantive edits, which feels fucking incredible. I'm just waiting for a few blurbs from some literary superstars and then my agent will officially begin sending out cover letters to editors. I'm exhilarated about this. I'm also mildly terrified. I mean, these next three to four months will shape my literary debut in the New York publishing world and also have a major impact on my literary career. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it's actually true. I've been waiting my whole life for this moment. My fingers are crossed.
Essay about Japanese misogyny, violence, and Kirino's OUT, Published in Ploughshares
According to the rules of the feminist thriller novel Out, murder becomes its own infinite regress.
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1st Piece Accepted in 2017
I got the great news yesterday that my short story "Conspiracy of Lemons," which is part of my conceptual short story collection, City of Sand, was accepted in Witness, a journal I've been sending submissions to off and on since 2010. It's incredibly satisfying to finally get a piece in that literary journal. Stay tuned!
Noctis (and His Boy Band) Save the World from Darkness by Killing Shit
Essay about the Gendering of the Coming-of-Age Narrative in FFXV Published in Ploughshares
Only in a Japanese RPG can a boy band save the world from the nefarious empire and its demonic biotechnological army. In Final Fantasy XV, four male friends led by its visual kei leader, Noctis (whose name means “night” in Latin), use the empire’s language of violence to decolonize the kingdom of darkness. Somewhere, Fanon’s ghost is drinking sake and smoking Peace cigarettes in celebration.
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Where literary and cultural analysis get a face lift
Meet your APIA Ploughshares Blogger for 2017
I got the great news recently that I'll be blogging for Ploughshares for 2017, focusing on APIA literature, gender constructions, and video games as literature, among other things.
7x7 (1 December 2016)
Prose Poem Published in 7x7 LA
The tattoos on your forearms are secret passage to puberty.
Sexuality becomes a magic trick to cut yourself in half.
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