Short Stories Archives - Page 9 of 17

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins, foreword by Elizabeth Alexander [in Library Journal]

21 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Filmmaker/playwright/writer/activist Kathleen Collins was a multi-faceted, multi-talented pioneer who died at just 46. In 2014, indie distributor Milestone Films reintroduced her groundbreaking 1982 film, Losing Ground, one of the first movies directed by an African American woman. Beyond the celluloid, this posthumously published 16-story...

Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan [in Christian Science Monitor]

14 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

'Temporary People' depicts the lives of guest workers in the UAE The sense of displacement, of disconnect begins on the cover: The words “A Novel” written sideways, unobtrusively stamped along the left side under the title Temporary People, might be considered misleading. Made up of three...

The Accusation by Bandi, translated by Deborah Smith [in Booklist]

15 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Korean, North Korean, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

*STARRED REVIEW Initially published in South Korea in 2014, The Accusation continues to make international history as the first literary work smuggled out of repressive North Korea, now headed for shelves around the world. Bandi – whose pseudonym is derived from firefly, an obvious nod to...

Public Library and Other Stories by Ali Smith [in Library Journal]

20 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

The dozen stories in Ali Smith's (How To Be Both) latest collection share a common characteristic: a contagious sense of wordplay, from obscure etymology ("buxom" originally meant "obedient, compliant, gracious") in "Last," to multiple meanings of "fraud" linking D.H. Lawrence to credit card theft in...

Author Interview: Shobha Rao [in Bloom]

07 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

The Recovered & The Unrestored Let me begin with a reader’s confession: Without a doubt, Shobha Rao’s debut, An Unrestored Woman, is the best short fiction collection I’ve read this year. These dozen stories are savage and empathetic, brutal and lyrical, mournful and celebratory as well. At...

Remembering 1942 and Other Chinese Stories by Liu Zhenyun, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin [in Booklist]

03 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories, Translation

Mao Dun Award–winning novelist Liu Zhenyun (The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon, 2015) adroitly confronts Very Big Topics – family, education, work, bureaucracy, the military, history – in his first translated-into-English story collection. “Tofu” exposes the numbing tribulations of being a poor family...

Author Interview: Vanessa Hua [in Bloom]

25 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

On Secrets and the Long, Long Process Journalist Vanessa Hua spent the last couple of decades filing articles from around the globe – China and Ecuador, Burma and Panama, and beyond – which surely gave her the worldly familiarity that resonates throughout her fiction debut, Deceit...

The Pier Falls and Other Stories by Mark Haddon [in Library Journal]

28 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, British, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Wildly varying in topics from a seaside disaster in the titular opening story to an unlikely relationship that develops between an older man and the suicide attemptee he rescues in "The Weir," Mark Haddon’s nine stories here are thematically linked through a common sense...

Deceit and Other Possibilities by Vanessa Hua [in Booklist]

08 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Chinese American, Fiction, Repost, Short Stories

Journalist Vanessa Hua’s debut in fiction is an intriguing collection of 10 stories with personal resonance from being the child of Chinese immigrants and a two-decade, continent-hopping career. Each of her protagonists is never quite grounded, caught between multiple cultures and countries. Each hides beneath layers...

An Unrestored Woman by Shobha Rao [in Library Journal]

27 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Presenting her dozen stories in six interlinked pairs, Shobha Rao uses the savage 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan as her narrative center, with reverberations moving outward beyond borders, cultures, countries, and generations. A 13-year-old's would-be widowhood spent in a refugee camp is the best...

Where Do We Go When All We Were Is Gone by Sequoia Nagamatsu [in Booklist]

08 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Japanese, Japanese American, Repost, Short Stories

Wacky and weird, writing and literature professor Sequoia Nagamatsu’s fiction debut is a 12-piece collection that defies easy categorization as an amalgam of sci-fi/fantasy, horror, and black comedy overlaid with ancient-to-contemporary Japanese myth and culture. Nagamatsu’s atypical characters include the “Margaret Mead of the Kaiju [strange...

Fortune Smiles: Stories! by Adam Johnson [in Library Journal]

01 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW To bring Adam Johnson’s six stories – which together won the 2015 National Book Award for fiction – to waiting ears takes a village of seasoned narrators. In “Nirvana,” Jonathan McClain deftly voices a desperate husband who uses technology to soothe his ill wife. Dominic Hoffman –...

A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham, illustrated by Yuko Shimizu [in Library Journal]

16 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Japanese, Nonethnic-specific, Repost, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

If Bruno Bettelheim's classic The Uses of Enchantment posited that fairy tales could help children understand their darkest fears, then Michael Cunningham's (The Hours) reenvisioned Other Tales charges adults to challenge perspectives. Ten stories are turned every-which-way by the author, who deftly subverts with both...

Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito, translated by Jocelyne Allen

23 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Short Stories, Translation, Young Adult Readers

So it wasn't even dusk yet and already the spine was tingling as soon as I opened the book. I kept looking around to make sure what was on the page hadn't somehow escaped and was about to pounce on me. With Halloween just over...

Once Upon a Time in Japan, translated by Roger Pulvers and Juliet Winters Carpenter, illustrated by Manami Yamada, Tomonori Taniguchi, Nao Takabatake, and Takumi Nishio

21 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Audio, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Short Stories, Translation

A "cheapskate" who longs for a wife who will work hard but never eat, a greedy young man who attempts to steal his brother's good fortune, a magic "hood" that allows the wearer to understand animals, a boy whose nap lasts three years, a wily fox who...

Strange Light Afar: Tales of the Supernatural from Old Japan by Rui Umezawa, illustrated by Mikiko Fujita

01 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Japanese, Short Stories, Young Adult Readers

How did we get to the month of Halloween already? To get you ready for the upcoming fright-fest, check out these eight spooky tales that have managed to stay scary for generations. Lost ghosts, evil spirits, deceptive other-worldly beings, hauntings, murders and worse. Goosebumps gotcha...

In the Country: Stories by Mia Alvar [in Library Journal]

15 Apr, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Filipina/o American, Repost, Short Stories, Southeast Asian American

*STARRED REVIEW Few writers, even the most seasoned, can produce collections of evenly superb stories. Mia Alvar triumphs on her first try. Her nine stories reflect her own peripatetic background (Manila born, Bahrain/New York raised, Harvard/Columbia educated), featuring a cast of immigrants, expats, travelers, runaways, and...

Redeployment by Phil Klay

10 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Audio, Fiction, Iraqi, Nonethnic-specific, Short Stories

This year, the venerable National Book Foundation has clearly favorited Phil Klay. First he was bestowed the youthful "5 Under 35" mantel, and then finished out with the coveted National Book Award for Fiction. Over the summer, he also made the shortlist for the 2014 Frank O’Connor...

Author Interview: Manjushree Thapa [in Bookslut]

06 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Nepali, Nepali American, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian, South Asian American

Blame it on family, on the country-of-residence-at-the-moment, on the tumultuous politics of her motherland of Nepal, but certainly Manjushree Thapa has lived a life in flux, repeatedly adjusting to unpredictability. Born in Kathmandu, she moved as a toddler to Canada (young enough to acquire English...

God Loves Hair by Vivek Shraya, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld

11 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Indian American, Memoir, Short Stories, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

Here's a book you just have to hold and feel and breathe in. Although the snapshot of the cover offers a hint of its unique size, not until you're gently flipping through the pages can you appreciate that you're clasping Toronto-based music/performance/literature/film artist Vivek Shraya’s precious little gem. Poignantly...

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