Memory and Creativity in Where the Past Begins
While Amy Tan’s fiction has always been informed by the experiences of those around her, her 2017 memoir turns inward, highlighting how much of her creativity stems from the lives that came before her.
Blog
Community and Junk Food in Christopher Gonzalez’s I’m Not Hungry But I Could Eat
In Gonzalez’s book, we see characters going out to eat with each other, enjoying “junk” food that may be bad for them because it is the food they know, the poison they enjoy. In a world that poisons them daily, enjoying a meal with a friend is the best way to chase their struggles away.
Philomath and Lyric Knowledge
Do the people of Devon Walker-Figueroa’s 2020 collection love to learn? Do we watch them learn in change while reading this book, and do we, in the process of reading these poems, learn anything?
The Imagery of the Vernacular in Salvage the Bones
Jesmyn Ward connects her Black characters to climate change, present in the shape of Hurricane Katrina, by using the sound of the storm to explore their lived experience. It is the oral tradition alive on the page.
“I’m considering and reconsidering ideas of storytelling and history within a family”: An Interview with Emma Hine
Emma Hine’s debut collection of poetry, out earlier this year, is a book focused on three sisters that behaves like a constellation surrounded by an ever-blackening sky.
Displacements and Digressions in Saša Stanišić’s Where You Come From
In Saša Stanišić’s impressive and touching novel, digressions are the journey, as we too move through make-your-own-adventure lives, in which where you are from, and even where you are going, are of transient import.
The Refusal of Boundaries in Etel Adnan’s Surge and Time
Adnan’s rejection of boundaries of time, geography, and standard logic echoes the very nature of two of her works: one written in English, one translated from French, one intentionally written as a collection, one pulled together from many years of disparate writing.
Storytelling in New York, My Village
Uwem Akpan’s story of an Annang narrator working in the “white bubble” of New York publishing is a story about storytelling—and not just the stories that make it past the gatekeepers to publication, but also the stories that are passed along in the conversations, letters, phone calls, photographs, and videos.
Blank Canvases and Self Portraits in White on White
In her second novel, Ayşegül Savaş goes deep into the human experience, beautiful and fraught, delivering a renewed perception of what it means to be a person among other people.