author talk: Xu Xi and Sybil Baker

In January, Daily s-Press featured Xu Xi's award-winning book Habit of a Foreign Sky. Through the mail exchange for the book, the idea for the next author talk developed: a conversation between Xu Xi and Sybil Baker, author of Talismans, a linked collection of stories.

The two know each other from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Both are fiction writers who have a strong connection to Asia, Baker having lived in Korea for 12 years and Xu who is from Hong Kong originally and has split her life in recent years between Hong Kong and New York. The conversation ranges from themes like fiction generally, teaching creative writing, and the general state of things for writers today.




FROM WEST TO EAST, AND FROM EAST TO WEST

Sybil L. Baker (SLB): Do you make distinctions (and should your readers) between expatriate, transnational, and global literature? When writing your novels, do you have a particular audience in mind?

XU XI (XX): Even though I’m very aware by now that readers in Asia can and will read my books differently, I still try to forget about a specific audience when I write. In the end, I still believe that stories about what it means to human can and will matter if they’re written well enough. And being human today is increasingly transnational, expatriate, and global from West to East as much as from East to West.

SLB: I agree, and what’s interesting is that transnationalism affects people from all sides of the world who may never even travel beyond their town or village. World policies, a global economy with shifts in the winners and losers, as well as transnational companies affect culture and lifestyles in ways many people may not even be aware of.

XX: It’s a changing world, the 21st Century, and it is our job, as writers, to “record” that change through the stories we tell. I think that fiction is a way to create a world that parallels the real worlds we encounter, which includes the characters we create to people those fictional worlds.
SLB: How has the reception been for Habit of a Foreign Sky in Asia versus North America? Is that different from your earlier novels?

XX: Interestingly, the reception has been much more similar in these two spaces this time, which leads me to believe that the readership is changing -- i.e.: becoming more global like my characters -- and my writing is tapping into that liminal space where more and more readers and writers now reside.

 But I’m interested also in what’s happened to the responses to your work. Your first book The Life Plan was a kind of comic romp while Talismans is much darker and paints a very different portrait of the young American woman abroad. I love the contrast between the two but how have your readers responded?

SLB: It’s funny because my feeling is that people I know associated (either as writers or readers) with high-end literary fiction didn’t take The Life Plan that seriously. They saw it more as a chick lit novel. Once Talismans came out though, my sense was that those people liked it better because it was a more “literary” work.
On the other hand, some readers who are not part of academia I think found Talismans too dark for them, and preferred The Life Plan. Of course some have liked both, which is great.

XX: Elise, your protagonist in Talismans, carries her grandfather’s pea coat as a sort of security blanket cum symbol cum justification for her travels. Yet in the end she simply gives it away to her former Korean lover. What did that gifting/release mean to her?

SLB: In “That Girl,” a story in the middle of the collection, Elise leaves the coat with her lover as she says goodbye to him and Korea.


Talismans Post card  1 - Click images to enlarge

 At that point, I think she gives the coat away out of anger and sadness that the affair didn’t work out, but she’s still searching for many answers about her past. Five years later (in the final story,“Grape Island”), she writes him wanting the coat back. He returns the coat to her but by the end of the story she has given him the coat again, this time as symbol of closure for her—of her relationship with him as well as her father.

The pea coat provides several narrative turns in the collection. I think linked story collections like mine or novels do require narrative turns, sometimes linked to what’s happening in the world as well, and I’m curious about how you respond to that as a writer. For instance, the main character in Habit of Foreign Sky, Gail Szeto works in the international financial world soon after the Asian economic crisis and the British handover of Hong Kong. During that time the States was in a stronger economic short-term position, while Asian countries regrouped.

Now more than ten years later, we see America’s empire on the decline and Asia’s (and in particular China’s) star on the rise. Are you working on anything that is set in the context of these changing fortunes?

this HKG shophouse was the model
for protagonist Gail's home

XX: Interestingly enough the novel I’m working on now -- and hopefully am almost finished with -- is all about the changing world of America in relation to China’s rising position of power. At least, that’s the impetus behind the writing, although the story is about Gordie, Gail’s American half brother who was born to privilege in the U.S. but is finding that privilege isn’t how he wants to grow old. I think that America, which has had its economic and 1st world prosperity, is finding that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be if the “house of cards” can fall apart so easily with the sub prime mortgage crisis. Meanwhile, China is riding the headiest bubble where everything is about consumption and more consumption and designer labels and cars that choke their cities. Where does all this lead? I begin that investigation in my current novel in progress.

SLB: It’s interesting because I read in an interview that Chang Rae Lee is working on a novel that is set in the financial world of Asia and the West during the current recession. I’m looking forward to reading novels that might have a different perspective or more nuanced view of our world than someone writing only from the position of the West.

XX: What about you? What are you working on now?

SLB: I’ve just (I hope!) finished a novel that takes place mostly in Korea but also in suburban Washington, DC. It’s about two sisters (one an adopted Korean) and the secrets they discover about their family. The novel takes place in 2010 during the sinking of the Korean submarine, the Cheonan, and also in 1980 when their father is an enlisted GI in Korea during a time of major political upheaval. The way the East and West interact because of political or cultural change continues to interest me even now that I’ve moved back to the U.S.

In a Habit of a Foreign Sky, Gail, a Eurasian, straddles East and West culture. I know that you’ve mentioned you like to explore East and West as characters—how does Gail embody some of these complications? How do your other characters, for example Gordie, who is American but very familiar with Hong Kong culture, enable you to explore those tensions without being too didactic or polemic?

XX: Both Gail and Gordie are reluctant Americans in their own way -- Gail because she would prefer to deny the illegitimate side of her blood and Gordie because he loves his life all over Asia that has given him meaning. For instance, he and Gail’s mother have a sweet relationship in Hong Kong that he doesn’t have with his own parents, yet he wouldn’t be so privileged if he wasn’t the son of an American pilot who took him to Asia in the first place. Gail meanwhile, does extremely well in mainstream America -- she graduates from the right school, enters investment banking and is successful -- yet wants somehow to be more Chinese despite all that. Yet even she sends her son to an international American curriculum school, recognizing that is where the power is in her world. So both are in conflict with who they are, yet can’t entirely discard the American skins that fit uncomfortably.

SLB: And the flip side of that is, can an American (like Gordie) who is immersed in Asian culture and language ever “have” an Asian skin? On the other hand, I think a bit of alienation is good for us Americans—many of us take our position in the world and in society for granted and have never experienced being an outsider.

This NYC builiding was the model
for lead male character Xavier's apartment

Gail, Gordie, and other characters in Habit of a Foreign Sky appear in earlier works. Did you plan to continue to write about these characters? Without giving too much away, at the end of Habit of a Foreign Sky, Gail decides to move to New York. I’d love to see her managing her career and personal life there—will we see her again in any future work?

XX: As I mentioned earlier, Gordie reappears in an even bigger role in my next book. Gail is done, I think, although she might make minor appearances in future. A couple of other characters in Habit seem to want space -- one of Fa Loong’s “sisters” will, and possibly John Haight, the lawyer who discloses what he shouldn’t to Gail about her mother’s will. It is possible too that Kina, the storytelling daughter of Xavier, might grow up into a future story but I really don’t quite know yet.

SLB: In a recent Asian American Literature panel at AWP (Association of Writing Programs conference in DC), one of the commentators spoke about Asian Americans identifying more with affiliations and affinities instead of nationalities. It seems that Habit of A Foreign Sky takes that approach to the characters and their development. I was wondering if you could comment on that.

A KIND OF POSTNATIONAL CULTURE

XX: I really believe that the world is moving towards a kind of post-national culture -- perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part -- but I do think that Facebook, Twitter, etc. means that we connect through affiliations and affinities rather than because of nationality. There was a time that whenever I traveled and met Chinese people, there would be a kind of ethnic or national bonding; I find this has decreased hugely with travel becoming cheaper and people getting to so many parts of the world. In 1980 when I spent almost a year in Greece, there were hardly any Chinese tourists there and I was a real oddity -- everyone thought I was Japanese -- and the Greek consulate in Hong Kong were so happy to issue me a visa because they had hardly any visitors. I daresay that has changed quite a bit now.

SLB: And yet, I worry that social media like Facebook (which I’m on) and Twitter, give people a false sense of connection. There’s no doubt that social media has opened up the world and allows connections that would be hard to establish or maintain even ten years ago. Yet, the nostalgic part of me wonders what will happen to good old conversation—staying up for hours and talking with friends over a few drinks. On the other hand, here in Tennessee, more and more of my students want to travel to Asia—to teach English there for a year or two, and that’s great. When I went to Korea in 1995, most people thought I was crazy. Now Asia seems to be more alluring.

XX: It’s nice, isn’t it, to be proved right as we get older? But I’m curious, after years of teaching ESL students in Korea, you’re now teaching young American writers in the South from where you originally hail. How has the experience of teaching abroad filtered into how you teach American writers now?



Talismans Post card 2 (a note on the cards, at the end)

 SLB: I learned many techniques and approaches from teaching composition in Korea that I’ve applied here in the States to all my classes. Certainly having to take a more formal approach to grammar and sentence structure with Korean students has been a surprising benefit here. My American writing students know so little about constructing sentences, and I feel that I can take them through that in a way I may not have if I hadn’t had to teach that in Korea. I also hope that my broad range of experiences traveling in Asia and living in Korea help other students think about ways they can realize their own potential as writers and readers.
But you’ve recently made a big change too at City University of Hong Kong, where you’ve started an Asian MFA writing program. What types of writers and students is the program aimed at, and what might they get from that program that they wouldn’t from an MFA from a North American university?

XX: We actually pay attention to what it means to write about, from, of, because of Asia, in English. While a North American MFA could readily teach someone to write an Asian story well, there will not necessarily be the focus, or expertise, at the program on Asian literature in English, what a perspective from Asia might do to a story, Asian languages (many of our faculty and students are conversant or fluent in Asian languages) and how that affects the way we articulate stories or poems of Asian cultures in English, etc. Our reading lists, even though these are individualized to each student given our low-residency curriculum, tend to have much more Asian writing in English that goes beyond Asian-American writing. In fact, you’re someone who is very conversant in Asian writing, and are a practitioner yourself of the “genre,” if we can call it that. But what also interests me is where you think contemporary fiction is headed in the 21st century of electronic reading (and writing)?

SLB: I think in terms of electronic reading, we’re going to see a larger difference between the haves and have nots, at least for a while. Fifteen years ago digital cameras were cumbersome, expensive, and of poor quality, but now digital cameras are tiny, cheap, and high quality—as a result, we assume that if you own a camera it must be digital. I think e-book readers will go the same way—it’s still early days. That said, most people in the world can’t afford a digital camera and those people also won’t be able to afford an e-book reader. Because of that, I hope that “real” books will still be readily available to those who don’t have e-book readers, or like me, like to mix and match. On the positive side, e-book readers are a great way to provide content globally, and in that sense, they are a vehicle for promoting and disseminating transnational literature. As for writing—I think we’d all better get used to signing Kindles!

XX: Now that’s an even greater challenge than writing our next books!

--

About the Talismans Post cards

The post cards were done by Sebastian Matthews, a poet and collage artist (and friend) of Sybil Baker. You can see more of his work at 3 by the Fire / Blog + 3 by the Fire / Tumblr.

Sybil Baker explains: "The photos are from my travels during the time period of Elise travels around Asia in Talismans (1995-2000). The quality of the photos are not great as they were taken on a regular camera and then scanned in--but I think that graininess adds to the post card look. The phrases are lines from the book that Sebastian chose. There were three postcards total.

The inlcuded Post card 1 includes photos from Myanmar (Burma) (reflecting the story "Ice Queen"), Korea (the men playing a traditional game) and the girl at the bakery ("That Girl" and "Grape Island"), and Cambodia ("Picturing Snakes")--the skulls are from the Killing Fields from the Genocide museum in Phenm Phenh.

Post card 2 has photos from Thailand ("Blue"), Vietnam ("Talismans"), Myanmar and Cambodia's Genocide Museum. Yes that's me with boys at the Sittwe Pier in Myanmar."

----



BIOS

Sybil Baker is the author of Talismans (C&R Press) and Life Plan (Casperian Books). Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including upstreet and The Writer’s Chronicle. Recently she was named an emerging star in fiction by Anis Shivani of The Huffington Post. After living in South Korea for twelve years, she moved with her South African husband to Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Assistant Director of the semi-annual Meacham Writers’ Workshops. See http://www.sybilbaker.com/ for more information.

Xu Xi is the author of eight books of fiction and essays. Her latest novel Habit of a Foreign Sky (Haven Books, 2010) was a finalist for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize. A Chinese-Indonesian native of Hong Kong, she has spent recent years inhabiting the flight path that connects New York, Hong Kong and the South Island of New Zealand. Last year, she helped establish the first MFA in Creative Writing (Masters of Fine Arts) that focuses on writing of Asia in English at City University of Hong Kong, where she is their Writer-in-Residence. Please visit http://www.xuxiwriter.com/ for more information.

photo Xu Xi: Paul Hilton

***

MORE AUTHOR TALKS



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Mercy Island - Ren Powell (Phoenicia)

The forty-one poems of Mercy Island, written by Ren Powell between 1998 and 2010, depict a coming of age that begins in a claustrophobic American trailer park and expands into the kind of borderless existence shared by all emigrants and homesick travelers.

Throughout this journey, the poet’s fears—which are the fears we all harbor—are balanced by her unflinching witness to what is real, just, true, and beautiful. Even in the face of pain and disintegration, the poet refuses to relinquish her humor or her humanity. Mercy Island: New and Selected Poems is Ren Powell's first collection to be published in North America. A preview is available online: Mercy Islands - preview.

An interview by Fiona Robyn on the collection, and on observance, routine, masculinity/femininity, routine, poems as a dialogue with the world, and the editing process, is up at: Writing Our Way Home: An interview with poet Ren Powell, and here's a new off-the-wall Woodrat podcast with Dave Bonta.

Ren (Katherine) Powell is a writer, translator, poet, and native Californian living on the west coast of Norway. She has published four full-length collections of poetry and eleven books of translations, and her poetry has been translated and published in six languages. Ren has a BA in Theater Arts and received her doctorate in Creative Writing from Lancaster University in England in January, 2011. She has taught theater and drama at a performing arts school for ten years and her dramatic works have been performed in the U.S., Canada and Norway. The founding editor of the online literary journals Protest Poems.org and Babel Fruit: Writing Under the Influence, Ren also represented Norway on the International PEN Women Writers’ Committee, and helped establish the International Cities of Refuge Network in Europe.

About Phoenicia Publishing
Phoenicia Publishing, located in Montreal, publishes poetry, non-fiction, fiction, and photography, and is interested in "words and images that illuminate culture, spirit, and the human experience." The press's founder, Elizabeth Adams, says that a particular interest is on writing about travel between cultures — whether literally or more metaphorically — with the goal of enlarging our understanding of one another through experiences of change, displacement, disconnection, assimilation, sorrow, gratitude, longing and hope.

Ren Powell: Mercy Island: New and Selected Poem
poetry collection
100 pages; $13.95
(pdf-file: 7.50)

related links: human condition, bilingual author, poetry

Asymptote - issue 1

Asymptote is a new journal dedicated to literary translation, run by an international team of editors: "We are interested in encounters between languages and the consequences of these encounters. Though a translation may never fully replicate the original in effect (thus our name, “asymptote”: the dotted line on a graph that a mathematical function may tend towards but never reach), it is in itself an act of creation."

Issue Jan 2011 features original essays by Mary Gaitskill and Alain de Botton, fiction by Thomas Bernhard and Yoram Kaniuk, poetry by Aimé Césaire, Tan Chee Lay, and Ko Un, drama by Toshiki Okada, and nonfiction by Masahiko Fujiwara and Pablo Martín Ruiz. In total, Asymptote presents more than thirty-five authors via some of the finest translators working today, including Clayton Eshleman, Forrest Gander, Soren Gauger, Rika Lesser, Pierre Joris and Howard Goldblatt.

Included in the debut issue are stories, poems, visual works, critical essays, and reviews of the latest books. Some recommended links:

• Himalaya Poems by Ko Un, translated from the Korean
• Höpöhöpö Böks by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, a video poem from Iceland
• Alain de Botton on La Rochefoucauld - a review
• Literature and Mathematics by Masahiko Fujiwara - an essay from Japan

All of it is available free online at the Asymptote website, which features not only the translated texts, but also, when available, the works in their original languages, audio recordings of those originals, and accompanying artwork specially curated for each issue.

About Asymptote
The editorial team of Asymptote presently comprises the following editors: Chief/Fiction/Visual: Lee Yew Leong(Singapore/Taiwan) ; Poetry/Criticism: Brandon Holmquest(USA); Drama: Nathalie Handal(Palestine/France/USA); Nonfiction: Aditi Machado(India/USA); Special Feature: Anthony Luebbert(USA); Contributing Editor: Sayuri Okamoto(Japan). Asymptote is now inviting submissions for their next issue, feature theme: "encounter between languages" - guidelines.

related links: bilingual authors, international, first issue

70 faces: Torah Poems - Rachel Barenblat (Phoenicia)

The poems in 70 faces are written in response to the weekly Torah portions in the Jewish lectionary. One by one they converse with the texts in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy -- the legal material alongside the narrative parts of the Torah, the texts which are easy for moderns to relate to alongside the texts which may challenge us and our theologies. An excerpt of the collection is available online: 70 faces.

"Rachel Barenblat’s Torah poems open the doorway into sacred text so that we can walk in and make it our home. She invites us to bring all of our passion, doubt, humor, humility and chutzpah as we encounter these ancient words and bring them to Life.” - Rabbi Shefa Gold, author of Torah Journeys

Rachel Barenblat holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is a Jewish Renewal rabbi, ordained in January of 2011. Since 2003 she has blogged as The Velveteen Rabbi; in 2008, her blog was named one of the top 25 blogs on the internet by TIME. This is her first full-length poetry collection.

About Phoenicia Publishing
Phoenicia Publishing, located in Montreal, publishes poetry, non-fiction, fiction, and photography, and is interested in "words and images that illuminate culture, spirit, and the human experience." The press's founder, Elizabeth Adams, says that a particular interest is on writing about travel between cultures — whether literally or more metaphorically — with the goal of enlarging our understanding of one another through experiences of change, displacement, disconnection, assimilation, sorrow, gratitude, longing and hope.

Rachel Barenblat: 70 Faces: Torah Poems
100 pages; $13.95

related links: human condition, philosophical, poetry

Writers Abroad Short Story Anthology

The Writers Abroad Short Story Anthology, with its theme of Expat Life, was compiled during November 2010 during the National Short Story Week in the UK, and features short stories by 29 authors, including Christopher Allen, Valerie Collins, Jill Brown, Paola Fornari, Janice Dunn, and many others.

An online version can be found in the 'Our Books' section of Writers Abroad, there also is an Isuu-version online.

"Containing a variety of fictional tales covering the highs and lows of living abroad, I‘m sure many of the stories will have been based on real life situations – often much stranger than the fictional versions found within these pages. Maybe that‘s one of the reasons so many expats pick up the pen (well, switch on the computer) and become writers. The experience of living abroad enriches our lives to such an extent that we feel the need to share, initially through letters and emails to friends and loved ones back home. One thing leads to another and, before you know where you are, another expat writer is born." - Lorraine Mace

About Writers Abroad
Writers Abroad is a community for Expat writers who wish to join a group of like-minded people. Members are expected to regularly contribute to the group’s aims of developing our writing abilities via mutual reviewing, sharing writing opportunities and working outside our natural comfort zones.

Writers Abroad Short Story Anthology
143 pages

related links: short stories, international, anthologies, bilingual authors

Curving the Line / Curvando la línea - Carmen Leñero (Leaf Press)

Curving the Line / Curvando la línea is the latest result of what has become a joyful exchange of poetry and language between two poets: Carmen Leñero and Lorna Crozier.

Their relationship began when Carmen, having been introduced to Lorna’s poetry through a friend, decided to translate some of them into Spanish and to set them to music. The result, in 2009, was La Perspectiva del Gato, published by Trilce Ediciones in Mexico City. With it came a CD of the songs. Curving the Line is Lorna’s translation of several of Carmen’s long poems, all of them previously published in Mexico.

Lorna says: “During her work on my poems, she and I corresponded, visited in her house in Mexico City and in mine on Vancouver Island. We stayed up late at night in my garden drinking wine, reading the poems out loud, and falling in love with each other and with the exactitude and magic of translation … What I so admire about her poems–their luminosity, their philosophical insights manifested through the senses, their elegance, their aphoristic wit–I pray the reader will find here.”

Mexican singer and writer Carmen Leñero has published twenty books in various genres. Her poetry, fiction and essays have won several literary awards and grants, including the 1998 Nacional Poetry Award Carlos Pellicer, and she has long been a member of the prestigious Sistema National de Creadores de Arte of the Mexican Ministry of Culture (CONACULTA).

Lorna Crozier is a Canadian poet. A Distinguished Professor at the University of Victoria, she is the recipient of several awards for poetry, including the Governor-General’s, and two honorary doctorates for her contributions to Canadian literature. In 2009 Trilce Ediciones in Mexico City published a collection of her poems translated into Spanish by Carmen Leñero. Her latest book is the memoir: "Small Beneath the Sky."

About Leaf Press
Leaf Press is an independent poetry publisher located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Other titles include: Falling Season by Beth Kope, My Nature by Christine Lowther and Flesh in the Inkwell by Winona Baker (previously featured in s-press here.)

Curving the Line / Curvando la línea
poetry by Carmen Leñero, translated by Lorna Crozier
52 pages, $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-926655-16-1

related links: bilingual authors, poetry

editor's note: there is an additional, more personal review of "Curving the Line" up in the editor's blog: "weekend reads"

to the river - Rose Hunter (Artistically Declined)

to the river is Rose Hunter's first book of poetry. She weaves an interlinked collection of poems ranging from Sydney to Canada, to Vienna, to Mexico, and back again.

"Hunter's poems represent a map for the landscape of our everyday actions. At times simple and others intriguingly complex, Hunter’s wide range of influences are clearly evident throughout as she manages to touch on seemingly every subject possible." (full review) - Patrick Trotti, JMWW

"to the river is more than one woman’s journey through life: it’s a series of quests, each presenting its own challenges, and the question is: Will she survive the next? Read these poems and find out." (full review) - Molly Gaudry, author of We Take Me Apart

Rose Hunter blogs at Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home. At the moment she is somewhere between Australia and Mexico, with the most important parts of her in Mexico. She is also the editor of the online poetry journal YB. Her collection of short stories, Another Night at the Circus, was previously featured on s-Press.

About Artistically Declined Press
Artistically Declined Press is devoted to the pairing of fantastic writing with great design, creating complete works of art. The press publishes books of fiction and poetry, the literary journal Sententia, and ADP.PDF's, a series of free ebooks, and is run by Ryan W. Bradley, who writes and lives in Oregon with his wife and two sons.

Rose Hunter: to the river
poetry collection
96 pages, $9

International Short Fiction Issue (WLT)

The September 2010 issue of WLT (World Literature Today) includes a first-ever marquee section devoted to International Short Fiction, introduced by guest editor Alan Cheuse. Several pages are available online (names are linked).

Authors contributing short stories include Ana Menéndez (Cuba/US), Raija Siekkinen (Finland), Nicole Lee (Malaysia), Andrei Cornea (Romania), Fatou Diome (Senegal/France), Cyrille Fleischman (France), Simon Fruelund (Denmark), Benjamin Percy (US), Amanda Michalopoulou (Greece), Alix Ohlin (Canada), and Ru Freeman (Sri Lanka), with original artwork by Edel Rodriguez on the cover and Danica Novgorodoff inside.

Highlights include: an excerpt from Vietnamese American author Andrew Lam’s forthcoming essay collection, East Eats West, new poetry by Tedi López Mills (Mexico), Jyrki Heikkinen (Finland), and Roger Sedarat (Iran/US), plus interviews with Israeli author Eshkol Nevo and Dutch crime writer Charles den Tex.

Alan Cheuse is best known for his frequent book reviews on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. As part of the International Short Fiction issue, his essay "The Form Read Round the World: American Short Fiction and World Story" is online at WLT, author profile included.

About World Literature Today
World Literature Today was founded as Books Abroad in 1927 by Roy Temple House, a scholar of vision from the University of Oklahoma. From a modest seedling of 32 pages in January 1927, Books Abroad grew to 256 pages by the end of its fiftieth year (Autumn 1976). In January 1977 the journal became known as World Literature Today, reflecting the truly international range that its coverage and reputation had acquired. Now in the 84th year of uninterrupted publication, WLT is the second-oldest such literary periodical in the United States, and remains devoted to their mission of serving students, scholars, and general readers worldwide.

International Short Fiction issue (WLT)
online excerpts (click title row)
several print / online subscription options available

related links: short stories, bilingual authors

Lantern Review - Issue 1

Lantern Review: A Journal of Asian American Poetry provides a virtual space in which to promote and discuss the work of contemporary Asian American poets and artists, and seeks to publish expertly crafted work in a variety of forms and aesthetics, including traditional and experimental pieces, hybrid forms, multimedia work, and new translations. Lantern Review welcomes pieces from anglophone writers of all ethnic backgrounds whose work has a vested interest in issues relevant to the Asian diaspora in North America, as well as work created collaboratively in a community context.

Issue 1 of Lantern Review features poems by Angela Veronica Wong, Changming Yuan, Melissa Roxas, Frances Won, Vuong Quoc Vu, Ocean Vuong, Kevin Minh Allen, Maria T. Allocco, Jon Pineda, Subhashini Kaligotla, Eileen R. Tabios, Rachelle Cruz, Sankar Roy, Vanni Taing, Asterio Enrico N. Gutierrez, Jai Arun Ravine, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Henry W. Leung, Luisa A. Igloria, & Barbara Jane Reyes; translations by Hsiao-Shih (Raechel) Lee visual art by Rebecca Y.M. Cheung, Ray Craig, Elaine Wang, and Steve Wing, and includes a special feature showcasing work created by members of the Kundiman community, as well as a book review of Sun Yung Shin's Skirt Full of Black, contributed by Craig Santos Perez.

About Lantern Review
Lantern Review was founded in 2009 by Iris A. Law & Mia Ayumi Malhotra, two college friends who had gone on to pursue graduate creative writing programs in different parts of the US. Lantern Review in online-only, and consists of an electronic journal and a blog.
We chose a lantern as our emblem because lanterns are cross-cultural symbols of beauty, hope, and enlightenment, have historically been a feature of community celebrations, and are also linked with exploration, discovery, and the forging of new paths. We hope that our name reflects our dual desires to shed light on the complex nature of Asian American poetry and to be a stage on which the question, “What is contemporary Asian American poetry and where is it headed?” can be played out.

Lantern Review Issue 1
90 pages, online issue

related links: first issues of new lit journals, east / west

Ghostmasters - Mani Rao (Chameleon)

Ghostmasters is a collection of Mani Rao's poems that "pluck and probe the various worlds of her imagination. 'Maybe the highway robbers will have a special smile for me,' she writes, and indeed the people, places, and things that haunt this book have their own special expressions, which reveal dark and delightful truths from "the ledge of knowing." - Christopher Merrill

Poems from this collection have been featured in literary journals including Wasafiri, Washington Square, Meanjin, Tinfish, XCP, How2journal, 91st Meridian, Almost Island, Softblow, Cha, Asia Literary Review, Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, Atlas and Zoland Poetry. You can read 2 poems from Ghostmasters on Asia Writes: Mani Rao: Shorts + Drought.

"Mani’s poems are death-defying acts of language, more daring than love-poems because they are unafraid to let love go, to release the self from itself. Lost to rediscovered words, miscommunications, fading memories, frogs and natural forces are arranged and rearranged here into new and devastating ways of seeing and thinking about our lives." -- Cyril Wong

Mani Rao is the author of eight books of poetry and a translation of the Gita (forthcoming in 2010 from Autumn Hill Books and 2011 from Penguin India). She lives between India, Hong Kong and the USA.

About Chameleon Press
Chameleon Press is an independent Hong Kong publisher specializing in fine Asian literature and topical non-fiction. More info at www.chameleonpress.com/

Mani Rao: Ghostmasters
poetry collection, 90 pages
ISBN 9881862310

related links:
- poetry
- bilingual authors

SAND - Issue 1

An English literary journal printed bi-annually in Berlin, SAND features prose and poetry in the English language, as well as translations from other languages, art, and photography.

An index of the first issue is available online and includes some web previews: SAND Spring 2010.

“SAND, Berlin’s new English literary journal, is... a kind of lyrical introduction to the city. The low-gloss presentation and discriminating choice of photos, graphic art and nudes round off the picture. You’ll recognize a number of the contributors, but many are new and amongst these, we welcome the inclusion of some Germans. The editors are also new, and they’ve done a good job of combining prose and poetry, translations and reviews to give a good overview of what makes this city tick when it speaks English.” (- from a review in the Exberliner, June 2010)

About SAND
Co-founders Becky Crook and Jason Andrews paired up in 2009 after deciding that Berlin had waited too long for a new English literary publication to showcase the undiscovered, up-and-coming and already glamorously established talent of the city. Featuring a diverse range of art, photography, poetry and prose, some in multiple languages with side-by-side English translations, the journal—published twice annually—also accepts works from writers and artists living outside of the city. SAND is now accepting submissions for the Fall 2010 issue, which will be published simultaneously with the Berlin International Literature Festival.

SAND spring issue
Issues of SAND are now available at Saint George’s Bookshop, East of Eden International Bookstore, and Artificium Kunstbucher & Galerie in Berlin, at various readings throughout Berlin, or for direct order (email info@sandjournal.com with inquiries, issue price: 5 Euros).

related links:
- first issues of new print lit journals / magazines
- bilingual authors

Zahra’s Paradise - Amir and Khalil (First Second Book & coop)

So a Persian writer, an Arab artist and a Jewish editor walk into a room… Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. Actually, that’s something like the start of this unusual editorial adventure, the first of its kind. Zahra's Paradise is an online, serial webcomic in various languages: English, Farsi, Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew and more. It is published by First Second books in cooperation with Casterman in French and Dutch, Rizzoli Lizard in Italian, and Norma Editorial in Spanish.

Zahra’s Paradise weaves together a composite of real people and events: Set in the aftermath of Iran’s fraudulent elections of 2009, this webcomic tells the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags. Mehdi has vanished in an extrajudicial twilight zone where habeas corpus is suspended. What stops his memory from being obliterated is not the law. It is the grit and guts of a mother who refuses to surrender her son to fate and the tenacity of a brother—a blogger—who fuses culture and technology to explore and explode absence: the void in which Mehdi has vanished.

author Amir + artist Kahlil
The author Amir is an Iranian-American human rights activist, journalist and documentary filmmaker. He has lived and worked in the United States, Canada, Europe and Afghanistan. His essays and articles have appeared far and wide in the press. Khalil’s work as a fine artist has been much praised. He sculpts and creates ceramics and has been cartooning since he was very young. Zahra’s Paradise is his first graphic novel. The authors have chosen anonymity for obvious political reasons.

About First Second Book, Casterman, Rizzoli Lizard, Norma Editorial
First Second Book is an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers. Casterman is a French comic publisher ("La maison Casterman a intégré le monde de la bande dessinée dans les années 1930 en éditant les albums de Tintin"). Rizzoli Lizard is an Italian comic publisher. Norma Editorial is a Spanish comic publisher.

Amir and Khalil: Zahra’s Paradise
online serial webcomic in English, Farsi, Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages
start reading at page 1

following the theme: more daily s-press books that focus on the theme of middle east / prohibited stories / east/west etc.

Snail - V. Ulea (Crossing Chaos Enigmatic Ink)

Formed from memories of dreams of memories, Snail is journey of life, introspection, and familial connectitude. Its seven interconnected stories are bonded by mood, plot, a single set of characters, and heart felt emotion; yet separated in a very dream like fashion by time, space, and logic of reality. Beautifully adorned by the artworks of Irene Frenkel, this book is not simply a work to be read and considered, it is a texturized and exhilarating cosmic dance for all the senses

"The stories slip effortlessly and seamlessly from reality to fantasy and back. These made me wonder, for example, whether there is a fairy tale in Russian literature or in Russian folklore regarding the snail, or one (or more) regarding the relationship between mothers and grandmothers, etc." - Harvey Stanbrough

V. Ulea (Vera Zubarev) is a bilingual Russian-English poet, writer, scholar and film director. She has published 14 books of poetry, prose, and literary criticism. She teaches classes on Decision Making in Chess, Literature and Film in the University of Pennsylvania

About Crossing Chaos Enigmatic Ink
Crossing Chaos Enigmatic Ink is an independent literary press dedicated to publishing avant-garde, experimental or otherwise unique fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and book art with general idealities similar to those found in absurdism, expressionism, futurism, irrealism, magic-realism, metaphysics and/or surrealism. Our books are richly intelligent and imaginative in their context, and curiously stimulating in the multi-layered subtext and potential interpretations.

V. Ulea: Snail
story collection
94 pages, $19.80
ISBN: 978-1926617060

Nothing Divine Here - Gloria Mindock

Nothing Divine Here is an accumulation of all the problems that people told to Gloria Mindock. No matter where she went, whether it was to the grocery store, clothes shopping or in other places, people would tell her their problems. Gloria decided to write about their experiences in first person. Being a Social Worker, she puts her empathy to good use.

"In a perpetual state of sadness and grief, these poems descend to the very core of the raw discourse of the soul, devoid of artifice and pose. The stark simplicity of their statement disarms us and leaves us vulnerable in front of the bitter reality of life." —Flavia Cosma, poet

Gloria Mindock is the editor of Cervena Barva Press and the Istanbul Literary Review, an online journal based in Turkey. From 1984-1994, she edited the Boston Literary Review/BLuR. She is the author of La Porţile Raiului” (Ars Longa Press, 2010, Romania), translated into the Romanian by Flavia Cosma and Blood Soaked Dresses, (Ibbetson St. Press, 2007). Her poetry has been widely published in many journals including Revista de Cultura, Aurora, Citadela, Phoebe, River Styx, Poet Lore, Blackbox, WHLR, Bogg, Pass Port Journal, Arabesques, and others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, St. Botolph Award and was awarded a fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council distributed by the Somerville Arts Council.

About U Šoku Štampa
U Šoku Štampa means In Shock Press in Serbian. U Šoku Štampa is a small press that solicits poetry only. The press does not have a Website and likes to stay under the radar. The press is based in Centinje, Montengro and Springfield, VA.

Nothing Divine Here by Gloria Mindock
poetry collection
100 Pages, $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-578-04760-7

Another Night at the Circus - Rose Hunter (YB)

Another Night at the Circus is a collection of linked short stories that chart the varying fortunes of Alex: hooker, stripper, and massage parlour worker. Making her way through a mix of tragic and comic situations, Alex seeks to keep the emotional impact at bay via a steady diet of drugs, alcohol, and ironic detachment. Along the way she encounters crazed johns, sadistic pimps and brothel owners and cruel coworkers, as well as people who, like her, are just trying - and failing - to connect.

"Rose, as one can easily determine from her webblog, is a poet; a poet with a contemporary and very hard feminine voice. The voice of Another Night at the Circus, Alex, narrates in the poetry of the street, the poetic sensation of night in dirty places, the degradation poetry of the sex trade; a unique voice that I wish were expanded. My complaint about Circus is a compliment: It is too short, there is not enough; after each scene I wanted it to go on, to find out more, what happened next?, is Annika all right?, why is Alex doing this?, why does she let these slobs use her like a tissue?" - Donigan Merritt

Rose Hunter is from Australia originally, lived in Canada for many years, and now lives in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. She blogs at Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home. She is also the editor of the online poetry journal YB, which is currently accepting submissions for its third (June 2010) edition. Guidelines here.

Another Night at the Circus
interlinked short stories
140 pages, $12
ISBN 9781451553819

in transit - Dorothee Lang (blueprint)

in transit is a mosaic of encounters, departures and arrivals; a journey in widening circles. Dorothee Lang merges the short story collection and travel diary format to explore recent global changes and undercurrents, and their influences on personal life. Geographically, the transit route starts in Berlin, moves through Europe, heads west towards the States, and then eastwards to Asia. Core themes include: globalisation / digitalization and the increasing interconnectedness of the world; the reunification of Germany and the hopes of a new millennium; the enhanced pace of life - often juxtaposed by the longing for a time-out; the drama of 9/11 and its aftermath; the mercurial nature of value systems.

"Dorothee Lang's in transit uses sense as sonar, bouncing waves off the natural and manmade world to image the fluidity of our existence. Like Dogen's Moon in a Dewdrop, in transit quietly feasts on the beauty of minutiae, showing time and again that what often goes unnoticed represents a microcosm, a history, an indelible connectedness that deserves our attention." - Mel Bosworth

Dorothee Lang is founding editor of the literary online journal BluePrintReview, and author of the travel novel Masala Moments. Her writing has appeared in numerous online and print magazines, among them: The Sunday Herald (India), The Mississippi Review (USA), Zeit Online (Germany), Dublin Quarterly (Ireland), Word Riot (USA) and others. She holds a degree in economics and advertising, and lives in the South of Germany.

About blueprintpress
Founded in 2006, blueprintpress is the print side wing of BluePrintReview. The current focus is on new and experimental formats: upcoming are 2 "micro novels" - hand-made books that fit in an air mail envelope. Blueprintpress currently is looking for fitting micro novel manuscripts (4000-5500 words, details).

Dorothee Lang: in transit
story collection / travel diary
64 pages
paperback

ETA - Delphine Pontvieux (Miss Nyet)

Delphine Pontvieux's ETA - Estimated Time of Arrest explores the ever current theme of terrorism, but with an original twist, since it is set in the heart of the Basque country, a region trapped between France and Spain, and struggling for its independence for many decades.
After participating in a pro-separatist march that turned violent in January of 1992, 21-year-old Lorenzo Lartaun Izcoa is wrongly charged with the fatal bombing of a police station in his home town. Irun is located right on the border between France and Spain, on the Atlantic Ocean. Lartaun finds himself on the Spanish Secret Service's "most wanted" list, branded an active member of the Basque terrorist group ETA.
He flees to Mexico where he lives in exile for two years, before being offered a chance to return to Europe with a new identity, in exchange for a favor for his boyhood friend. That favor, however, will prove to be more than he can handle once he finds out that Patxi is planning for a big event to shake Spanish politics.
What sets this thriller apart from many others is the in-depth view of the characters and the friendships that serve to advance the story. And while the characters and events depicted are entirely fictional, references to real life political culture and geographic locales make this story credible, giving the reader a chance to learn about the Basques and their homeland.

Delphine Pontvieux was born in Versailles and grew up in France. She graduated from the University of Burgundy in Dijon. She also lived, studied and worked in Australia, the USA, Spain and the Netherlands until she moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1998, where she still lives today. Delphine loves the mountains and the seas. She is a scuba instructor, cave and technical diver, and ocean conservation advocate. As a writer, she regularly contributes to international diving publications.

About Miss Nyet
Miss Nyet Publishing is an independent venue dedicated to finding talented and creative writers with a unique voice in a wide array of fiction genres, with a preference for thrillers, suspense, romance and horror. An interview was recently up in the Small Press Review: Small Press Profile - Miss Nyet Publishing.

Delphine Pontvieux: ETA
344-page hardcover
US$ 18,95
ISBN 978-09842176-0-1