by Daryl Lim Wei Jie Yang Mu (author), Michelle Yeh (editor), Hawk of the Mind: Collected Poems, Columbia University Press, 2018. 248 pgs. It may seem pedantic, but I thinkContinue readingYang Mu’s Hawk of the Mind: Collected Poems

by Maialen Marin-Lacarta  Aili Mu (translator and editor) with Mike Smith (contributor), Contemporary Chinese Short-Short Stories: A Parallel Text, Columbia University Press, 2017. 528 pgs. In the last fifteen years, aContinue readingContemporary Chinese Short-Short Stories: A Parallel Text

by Ilaria Maria Sala Christina Yi, Colonizing Language: Cultural Production and Language Politics in Modern Japan and Korea, Columbia University Press, 2018. 248 pgs. In this study of Korean authorsContinue readingUncontrollable Forces: Christina Yi’s Colonizing Language: Cultural Production and Language Politics in Modern Japan and Korea

by Michael Tsang Tarō Naka (author), Andrew Houwen and Chikako Nihei (translators), Music: Selected Poems, Isobar Press, 2018. 138 pgs. Tarō Naka’s poems are difficult. Although highly esteemed among JapaneseContinue readingTake on the Challenge: Tarō Naka’s Music: Selected Poems

by Paoi Wilmer Chi Pang-yuan (author), John Balcom (translator), The Great Flowing River: A Memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan, Columbia University Press, 2018. 480 pgs. Born in China inContinue readingChi Pang-yuan’s The Great Flowing River: A Memoir of China, from Manchuria to Taiwan

by Jason S Polley Kawika Guillermo, Stamped: An Anti-travel Novel, Westphalia, 2018. 360 pgs. He understood that need to escape, but did not expect this restless abandon; how travel canContinue reading‘So punk in drublic’; or, ‘Stepping in her footprints to erase your being here’: Kawika Guillermo’s Stamped: An Anti-travel Novel

by Alana Leilani Teves Cabrera-Narciso Sarge Lacuesta, A Waiting Room Companion, BUGHAW, 2017. 188 pgs. As I looked at the cover of A Waiting Room Companion—showing a woman reclined in a plushContinue readingPoor, Rich Kid: Sarge Lacuesta’s A Waiting Room Companion

by Ronald Torrance Su Tong (author), Jane Weizhen Pan (translator) and Martin Merz (translator), Petulia’s Rouge Tin, Penguin, 2018. 106 pgs. In their introduction to their delicate translation of SuContinue readingPreserving the Unspoken Past: Su Tong’s Petulia’s Rouge Tin

by Grace Chia Liu Yiqing (compiler), ZhenJun Zhang (editor and translator), Hidden and Visible Realms: Early Medieval Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic, Columbia University Press, 2018. 304 pgs.Continue readingHidden and Visible Realms: Early Medieval Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic

by Michael Tsang Wendy Chen, Unearthings, Tavern Books, 2018. 104 pgs. In her debut poetry collection Unearthings, Wendy Chen muses on important issues of history, gender and race through herContinue readingReading History Slowly: Wendy Chen’s Unearthings

by Zeny May Dy Recidoro  Keller Kimbrough and Haruo Shirane (editors), Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds: A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales, Columbia University Press, 2018. 464 pgs. Monsters, Animals,Continue readingThe Liberated Mind: Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds: A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales

by Angela Qian John Nathan, Sōseki: Modern Japan’s Greatest Novelist, Columbia University Press, 2018. 344 pgs. The great Japanese novelist Natsume Sōseki’s[i] life began as an unhappy fairytale might: born toContinue readingSōseki: Modern Japan’s Greatest Novelist

by James Au Kin-Pong Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (author), Phyllis I. Lyons (translator), In Black and White, Columbia University Press, 2018. 256 pgs. Originally serialised in a several Japanese newspapers in 1928, InContinue readingBetween Fiction and Reality: Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s In Black and White

by Kate Rogers ❀ Rochelle Potkar, Paper Asylum, Copper Coin, 2018. 103 pgs. ❀ Rochelle Potkar, Four Degrees of Separation, Paperwall Media, 2016. 133 pgs. I was introduced to theContinue readingIn the Country Where I Live: Two Collections by Rochelle Potkar

by Alana Leilani Teves Cabrera-Narciso ❀ Cindy Rinne, Quiet Lantern: A Novel in Verse, Turning Point Books, 2016. 116 pgs. ❀ Khairani Barokka, Rope, Nine Arches Press, 2017. 76 pgs. ❀ MookieContinue readingSoldiers of the Heart: Poetry by Cindy Rinne, Khairani Barokka and Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta

by Nina Powles Nashua Gallagher, All the Words a Stage, Chameleon Press, 2018. 102 pgs. “They place me in new soil / Do not look at me in my newness /Continue readingThere’s No Place Like Home: Nashua Gallagher’s All the Words a Stage

by Joyce Lau Joshua Samuel Brown and Stephanie Huffman, Formosa Moon, ThingsAsian Press, 2018. 336 pgs. Smangus, the most remote village in Taiwan, is known for the island’s best naturalContinue readingUnravelling Taiwan: Joshua Samuel Brown and Stephanie Huffman’s Formosa Moon

by John W. Steele Jenna Le, A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora, Indolent Books, 2018. 94 pgs. In this stunning collection of poetry, Jenna Le—a Minnesota-born daughter of VietnameseContinue readingAn Anatomy of Trauma: Jenna Le’s A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora

by Chloe Leung Cheryl Pallant, Ginseng Tango, Big Table Publishing Company, 2017. 211 pgs. Ginseng: a slow-growing and energy-boosting plant found primarily in Korea and China. Oval-shaped with roots fraying alongContinue readingA Tangoed Soul with Tangled Roots: Cheryl Pallant’s Ginseng Tango

by Swathi Parasuraman Mohsin Hamid, Exit West, Hamish Hamilton, 2017. 240 pgs. I remember reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist two years ago. At the time, I didn’t know it had been shortlistedContinue readingA Refugee Love Story: Moshin Hamid’s Exit West

by Martin Merz and Jane Weizhen Pan Editors’ note: Read Susan Blumberg-Kason’s review of Eileen Chang’s Little Reunions here and her response to Jane Weizhen Pan and Martin Merz’s rejoinderContinue readingMessage from Translators of Little Reunions

by Susan Blumberg-Kason Editors’ note: Read Susan Blumberg-Kason’s review of Eileen Chang’s Little Reunions here and Jane Weizhen Pan and Martin Merz’s response here. Last week, I read with interestContinue readingLetter to the Editors