AAWW Radio: New Asian American Writers & Literature

In 2017 we celebrated the launch of author Min Jin Lee’s highly acclaimed novel Pachinko. Beginning in 1910 during the time of Japanese colonization and ending decades later in 1989, Pachinko is the epic saga of a Korean family told over four generations. Min Jin Lee reads from her novel and then is interviewed by AAWW E.D. Ken Chen. They discuss her extensive research and interview process, how growing up in Queens, New York helped her write Pachinko, and much more.

Gina Apostol's novel Insurrecto tells the story of the atrocities that faced Filipinos who rose up against their colonizers during the Philippine-American war at the turn of the 20th century. The book was one of the NYT's 2018 Editor’s Choices and won comparisons to Nabokov and Borges for its kaleidoscopic structure. Gina reads from Insurrecto and then is joined by author Sabina Murray. They discuss nonlinear narratives, white guilt, Duterte reprising the oppressive role of the American colonizer, and mor

In 2017, we hosted novelists Kamila Shamsie Hirsh Sawhney, both writers had released novels about South Asian families fractured in the diaspora. They read from their novels Home Fire and South Haven, and have a conversation with New Yorker editor Rozina Ali about power structures, American Empire in literature, debunk myths on the War in Terror, as well as do a deep dive on craft and authenticity.

We're featuring writers Rahul Mehta and SJ Sindu who read from debut novels No Other World and Marriage of a Thousand Lies featuring complex queer South Asian characters. They have a conversation with writer and Shoreline Review editor Sreshtha Sen about writing transnational narratives, how cultural trauma affects what we write, and resisting the common coming out story. How do you come out to family members whose language you don’t speak?

We’re reaching back over a decade into our archives to 2005, when activist and saxophonist Fred Ho invited Yuri Kochiyama's friends & contemporaries Baba Herman Ferguson, Esperanza Martell, & Laura Whitehorn to our space to speak on Yuri's legacy as a radical Asian American political activist. Diane C. Fujino, author of Yuri Kochiyama's biography Heartbeat of Struggle, talks about her political awakening from her early years in a concentration camp, to her friendship with Malcolm X in New York City.

How is resistance possible when reality is obscured? Raissa Robles shares her work, Marcos Martial Law: Never Again, and speaks on the rise of Duterte. Raad Rahman reads about repression of Rohingya refugees and LGBTQ in Bangladesh, and Tenzin Dickie reads about Tibetan representation and Chinese occupation. Jeremy Tiang moderates a conversation on the rise in authoritarianism as a reaction to colonialism, and the importance of remembering the past. (Audio from our 2017 Event)

We hear from Open City's Fellows Roshan Abraham, Pearl Bhatnagar, Huiying Bernice Chan, Aber Kawas, Humera Afridi, and Sarah Moawad who read journalism pieces about Asian American neighborhoods in New York City. They then have a moderated Q&A with former Open City Fellow Roja Heydarpour about responsible reporting and entering journalism as a person of color.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice outlines what it means to create spaces by and for sick and disabled queer people of color. In this episode of AAWW Radio, Leah reads from her essay collection and then has a conversation with Cyrée Jarelle Johnson about meaningful inclusion of disability justice, Intersectional disability, the nuances and multitudes of the disability experiences, and “crip wealth.”

We're celebrating Emily Jungmin Yoon’s debut collection of poetry, A Cruelty Special to our Species. The poems in this book are records of earthly and human violence—the sexual slavery of Korean comfort women, lives lost during natural disasters, and the everyday, accumulating ways that women are made to silently accept pain. Wo Chan, Sueyen Juliette Lee, and Kristin Chang read poems about friendship on mushrooms, a roast duck elegy to restaurant families, and environmental erotica about condensation.

In Poetry Potluck 2, we have Vivek Shraya and Fatimah Asghar, who read from their poetry books I’m Afraid of Men and If They Come For Us. Vanity Fair writes, “Shraya’s dispatches from the frontlines of life as a queer, trans woman of color are frequently illuminating and painfully honest.” If They Come For Us is Fatimah Asghar’s debut poetry collection, where she captures her experience as a Pakistani Muslim woman in contemporary America, exploring identity, inheritance, and healing.

Kate Gavino’s new graphic novel Sanpaku explores the Japanese myth through the eyes of Marcine, an impressionable Filipina preteen who lives for her grandmother’s eccentric stories. In this episode we have critically acclaimed cartoonist Kate Gavino, who has invited The Verge's Angela Chen, Little A editor Vivian Lee, Catapult's Matt Ortile, and editor and author Rakesh Satyal to share stories about their Asian grandmothers, and all the feelings of love, loss, and guilt that come with them.

The Incendiaries, the new bestseller from R.O. Kwon, follows the journey of a Korean American college student who falls under the spell of grief. As she finds new love, she’s also lured to violence in a Christian cult tied to North Korea. R.O. Kwon speaks with Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night, about growing up Korean and Christian, and shares an unpopular opinion: that books should be shelved with the spine facing inwards. She also talks about losing her faith, both in religion and in art

In this episode of AAWW Radio, join us as four authors—Lee Herrick, Tracy O’Neill, Matthew Salesses, and Sung J. Woo-read from new books that grapple with the realities of adoption, broken families, and the journeys we take to find out where we belong. The authors discuss the identity politics that go hand-in-hand with having a white name and a Korean self, adoptee visibility, and the importance of seeing your own reflection. Moderated by Columbia Asian American Literature Professor Shinhee Han.

In 2016, we hosted Scholar Christine Bacareza Balance, author of Tropical Renditions: Making Musical Scenes in Filipino America. We also feature Guggenheim Fellowship-winning poet Patrick Rosal, whose poetry explores vital questions about race in America. They have a conversation with novelist Jessica Hagedorn. Together they discuss Pinoy DJs and turntabling (Shout out to DJ Qbert), the act of disobedient listening, and how immigrant parents remix their lives in order to survive.

Two years ago on this month, we celebrated the release of Solmaz Sharif's poetry collection Look. Her poetry bears witness to, in the words of NPR, “war in the Middle East, the war on terror, the devastation ravaged upon families in the name of freedom.” Featuring Mariam Ghani, Cathy Park Hong, Rickey Laurentiis, and Solmaz Sharif, their work analyzes state sponsored violence through language, forms poems from Guantanamo Bay redacted letters, and parses “the fault line from Ferguson to Palestine.”