On AAWW Radio

The fine folks at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop are featuring an event I did back in 2015!  Please give it and the other fine shows a listen.  Here’s how:

Website: http://aawwradio.libsyn.com/

Apple: https://apple.co/2M2eX1W

Google Play: https://bit.ly/2kTfRRU

Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2kUfZ3n

TuneIn Radio: http://tun.in/piGyv

RSS: http://aawwradio.libsyn.com/rss

10/22/15 7pm: Adopting an Identity @ AAWW (NYC)

If you’re in the NYC area, please come on by to the Asian American Writers’ Workshop this Thursday evening!

Thursday, October 22 7pm
ADOPTING AN IDENTITY
with Lee Herrick, Tracy O’Neill, and Matthew Salesses
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 West 27 Street, Ste. 600
New York, NY 10001

aaww

The Suitcase, on The Margins

Coldwell-StillLifeSuitcase-sung-woo

Still Life with Suitcase, Paul Coldwell (aaww.org)

‘Our apartment, our home, became an unfamiliar space. We still slept in the same queen bed, but no longer did we speak of upgrading to the capacious king. We could now easily fit two additional people in the valley of the bedsheet between us.’

It’s Fiction Friday at AAWW’s The Margins, and I’m so very proud to have my story up there.  It’s titled “The Suitcase,” and the first decent draft of this story that was sent out to various journals was back in April 12, 2007.  That is not a misprint — this story has been waiting for a home for eight years.  I never gave up on it, rewriting it at least a dozen times.  The original version ran almost 5000 words.  The published one runs around 3500.  I guess I finally figured out how to leave out all the bad parts.

Huge thanks to Anelise Chen, the fiction editor at The Margins, who gave me such great critiques and suggested a new beginning.  Thanks also to Mary Gaitskill, who held a master class at NYU a couple of years back.  Lucky for me, this story was one of the ones she chose to workshop; I still have the manuscript she marked up in my files (tiny print in pencil!).  And finally, thanks to Michael Bahler, who edited an earlier version and helped me reshape it and make it so much better.

Two Upcoming Events, Plus Paperback Cometh

In five days, the paperback edition of Everything Asian will be hitting the shelves.  Pick one up!  Tell your friends!  And if your friend is Oprah, be sure to give her a copy!

Anyway, back to reality.  Tomorrow I’ll be visiting the West Windsor Library in Princeton Junction for an event titled “Studio Scrawl: The Art of the Short-Short Story.”  I did this presentation at Pingry for their students a little while back and it went over well, so I’ll once again be singing the praises of J. Robert Lennon and his awesome short-short stories.  If you still haven’t read Pieces for the Left Hand, man, am I jealous.  I wish I could read it for the first time all over again.

Next Friday at 9pm (7/23), I’ll be at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s Mouth to Mouth Open Mic featuring Ali Wong and yours truly.  It’s my paperback launch, so come on out for some good literature and comedy.