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 ]
PEN America has faced an enormous amount of criticism from the literary world for, among other things, failing to call Israel’s six-month assault on Gaza a genocide, and is now facing a wave of withdrawals from two of its signature events, the literary awards and the World Voices Festival. In... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-18 14:26:32 UTC ]
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In January 2016, I was an unpublished writer working on my first novel when I learned of an artist residency on a tiny island off the west coast of South Korea. Excited, I daydreamed of finishing my manuscript in my motherland, visiting family, and of course, eating an abundance of delicious... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-18 11:05:00 UTC ]
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The work of Barbara Comyns always felt like a secret, as if she were writing, speaking only to me. A literary outsider, Comyns had almost no formal training in writing, and didn’t publish her first novel until 1947 at the age of forty. She published ten novels and one short memoir, but it’s her... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-15 08:56:47 UTC ]
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Elegant, luxurious, catlike … Netflix’s Andrew Scott-starring series is devastatingly unhurried – although not all viewers agree• Don’t get the What’s On TV newsletter delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereThe reviews for Netflix’s elegant new Patricia Highsmith adaptation, Ripley, have been... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-09 11:00:06 UTC ]
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The astonishing breadth of her writing was a great inspiration – as was she, in her passionate advocacy for children’s books• Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian in the Cupboard, dies aged 94It is quite rare to find a writer like Lynne Reid Banks, who tries so many different subjects, and so... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-08 10:18:15 UTC ]
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The Suede bassist and author on writing without a safety net, terrifying himself for his next novel and which of the Thursday Murder Club books – by his brother Richard – he likes bestMat Osman is, along with Brett Anderson, a founding and current member of the band Suede, and the author of two... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-03-23 18:00:26 UTC ]
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There is a disturbing trend that has emerged in the literary world as of late. Let’s call it the “Fragmented Non-Fiction Art History” book. These titles look good on bookshelves, with their aesthetically-inclined covers and trendy lineup of female artists they purport to be about. The covers are... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-05 09:53:47 UTC ]
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“A Woman of Pleasure,” Kiyoko Murata’s first novel to be translated into English, explores the world of sex work in early-20th-century Japan. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-26 10:00:14 UTC ]
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We Solve Murders introduces a new detective duo – but the author has not abandoned his Thursday Murder Club charactersA new crime series by Richard Osman called We Solve Murders has been announced, after the huge success of his Thursday Murder Club novels.The beloved elderly sleuths from the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-20 17:44:06 UTC ]
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From cancelled books to ‘review bombing’, it might seem as though the website can make or break a career. But how influential is it really?Something dramatic happens on a social media platform every day. On Goodreads, the anachronistically designed website for logging, rating (out of five) and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-02-17 09:00:10 UTC ]
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The movie, with its handful of Oscar nominations, has refocused attention on “Erasure,” a satire of the literary world and its racial biases. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-03 10:02:42 UTC ]
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These are the 23 most clicked-on books featured on Book Riot in 2023, from fantasy to literary fiction and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-16 11:45:00 UTC ]
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Netflix’s long-anticipated sci-fi series 3 Body Problem finally has a full trailer, following a short teaser released last year. This new trailer is over two minutes long and absolutely filled with exciting moments and tantalizing clues. Watch it below. The show’s based on a hit book series by... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-01-09 20:00:27 UTC ]
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With El Niño slated to drop a warm, wet winter on most of the US in the coming months, everybody’s going to need something good to read while the weather outside is frightful. Engadget’s well-read staff have some suggestions: our favorite books of 2023! We’ve got a phenomenal assortment of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-12-25 16:30:28 UTC ]
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From history books to award-winning literary fiction to memoirs, here are the books Barack Obama named as his favorites of 2023. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-22 21:06:46 UTC ]
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In “Alice Sadie Celine,” Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s first novel for adults, a lauded feminist becomes entangled with her daughter’s best friend. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-12-22 10:00:21 UTC ]
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There are historical fiction books out there for every reader. Find recommendations for fans of literary fiction, romance, fantasy, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-12-19 11:32:00 UTC ]
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The literary world may have a complicated relationship to popularity—see every literary novelist’s love/hate (and almost always unrequited) relationship with the bestseller list—but the internet does not. Simply: it’s good to be read, and so we thank you, our readers, for consuming, commenting... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-18 09:52:49 UTC ]
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There is no denying that African literature is having a moment on the global literary stage. In 2021, African writers took the literary world by storm. It is in light of this that the South African writer Damon Galgut said in his acceptance speech at the 2021 Booker Prize ceremony that “2021 was... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-18 09:49:40 UTC ]
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Of all the great premises™ boasted by this year’s slate of movies, the wonderful American Fiction has one of the very best. The film is about a veteran writer of literary fiction who, as a Black man, finds himself undesirable in the literary market for his lack of conforming to type. The... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-15 09:55:27 UTC ]
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