Can We Truly Be Free of Our Past? A Conversation with Wendy Chen, by Xixuan Collins Interviews [email protected] Mon, 04/29/2024 - 15:10 An epic family saga that spans over one hundred years and two countries, Wendy Chen’s powerful, lyrical debut, Their Divine Fires (Algonquin, forthcoming on May 7, 2024), is about history, love, passion, loyalty, betrayal, and our desire to be free of our past. In the novel, four generations of women survived the formidable hardship in China during the tumultuous twentieth century—the warlord melee, the Communist–Nationalist civil war, the Japanese invasion, and the Cultural Revolution—each emerging with unspeakable loss and heartache yet undampened spirit for life and the future. An intimate study of family relationships with the backdrop of a chaotic, changing world, this book provides a perspective on Chinese history rarely seen in American literature. Xixuan Collins: You capture the emotions of the four generations of Chinese and Chinese American women so vividly. You have said that you were inspired by your grandmother’s stories of her mother and uncles and the ways they fought, lived, and died for what they believed in. Can you tell us a little more about the story behind your story; that is, what was the moment when you realized you had a story to tell and you felt compelled to sit down and write this novel? Wendy Chen: My grandmother would always tell me stories of her family when I... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-29 20:10:46 UTC ]
The Nigerian American author’s first novel in 12 years depicts troubled relations between men and women—but no tidy resolutions. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2025-03-05 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—which just so happens to be National Small Press Month—a Lit Hub staff member will be recommending a small... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-03-04 14:30:00 UTC ]
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Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—which just so happens to be National Small Press Month—a Lit Hub staff member will be recommending a small... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-03-04 14:17:00 UTC ]
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Climate change is conspicuously absent from most realist, literary fiction set in the present day. Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, droughts and other natural disasters are part of our daily lives, yet they’re absent, save for brief mentions of a news clip for a college protest from much of our... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-03-04 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Small presses have had a rough year, but as the literary world continues to conglomerate, we at Literary Hub think they’re more important than ever. Which is why, every (work) day in March—which just so happens to be National Small Press Month—a Lit Hub staff member will be recommending a small... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-03-03 14:30:46 UTC ]
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In her first novel since “Americanah,” she draws on a real-life assault as she follows the lives of three Nigerian women and one of their former housekeepers. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-03-02 10:00:13 UTC ]
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A prolific novelist, poet, painter and soothsayer, he was inspired by the chaos of his country and published the first novel written entirely in Haitian Creole. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-02-27 01:53:19 UTC ]
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Elyse Durham’s immersive and thematically timely first novel centers on twin sisters, born during the Siege of Leningrad, trained as ballet dancers at the celebrated Vaganova, and launching their careers at the height of the Cold War. The plot is set to detonate at a critical point in the Cold... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-18 09:57:15 UTC ]
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Out of 1,100 submissions, writer Giada Scodellaro’s Ruins, Child has won the 2024 Novel Prize, and will be published early next year. The Novel Prize is awarded biennially to an unpublished work of literary fiction and “rewards novels that explore and expand the possibilities of the form, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-02-13 18:21:05 UTC ]
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Regular bookstores might be dying—but bookstores dedicated to romance novels are thriving thanks to TikTok and a desire for third places. Throughout Harvard Square, there are many bookshop brimming with the latest literary fiction and intellectual memoirs, patronized by scholarly types. But in... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2025-02-13 10:30:00 UTC ]
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1. Check the cover for clues. Literary fiction will have the title in Helvetica along with amorphous shapes in shades of that year’s Pantone color. Genre fiction will have a little cutout showing the face of either a wizard or a rakish duke. It opens to reveal the whole picture, and they’re... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2025-02-07 12:15:00 UTC ]
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The book 'Lion' comes at a time of incalculable loss for Sonya Walger, who lost her home in the Palisades fire. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2025-02-04 11:00:34 UTC ]
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As fans snap up copies of ‘Onyx Storm’ the #1 (and #2) book in the country, author Rebecca Yarros is regrouping, swiftly. Plus Han Kang’s first novel since her Nobel Prize win, ‘We Do Not Part,’ debuts on our list, and Aurora Ascher has sympathy for the devil. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2025-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I asked what your favorite 2024 queer books were, and here are the most popular responses, from queer literary fiction to M/M sports romance! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-12-26 11:15:00 UTC ]
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Sex and the City star says it is ‘the thrill of a life’ to be appointed to 2025 panel alongside Roddy Doyle, Kiley Reid and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ to pick year’s best novelHer Cosmopolitan-sipping, Manolo-wearing, wise-cracking Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City was a generation-defining star turn.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-12-14 14:00:18 UTC ]
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Joseph Earl Thomas won this year’s Center for Fiction First Novel Prize for his book God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer. Congratulations! The novel has made it onto several best-of-2024 lists, and has been praised as “a powerful examination of every day black life–of health and sex, race and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-12-11 16:36:55 UTC ]
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