{"id":3422,"date":"2003-09-26T07:47:14","date_gmt":"2003-09-26T11:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=3422"},"modified":"2015-08-17T10:49:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T14:49:24","slug":"dream-jungle-by-jessicahagedorn-author-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/dream-jungle-by-jessicahagedorn-author-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn + Author Interview [in AsianWeek]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dream<\/a>Her Bum Is on Fire: Jessica Hagedorn debuts with her latest novel<\/strong><\/p>\n

After years of chatting on the phone and sending various e-mails back and forth, I finally got the chance to meet writer extraordinaire Jessica Hagedorn. With her classic coming-of-age debut novel, Dogeaters<\/em>, her compilation of Asian Pacific American writings, Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction<\/em>, which she edited, her various plays and her multimedia performance pieces \u2013 not to mention her inspiring politics \u2013 Hagedorn has long been recognized as both a leader and a mentor at the forefront of Asian Pacific America.<\/p>\n

On that recent Sunday morning in New York City, we finally came face-to-face in front of a closed bubble tea salon. She greets me with open arms, and she\u2019s as warm, energetic, passionate, and downright entertaining as I expected. No bubble green tea just yet. (A few months back, she actually sent me an entire list of the best bubble tea salons throughout lower Manhattan). Instead, we settled on a nearby Japanese restaurant.<\/p>\n

“The cast and crew hung out here almost every day when we were doing Dogeaters<\/em> at the Public [Theater],\u201d Hagedorn comments, referring to the much-lauded stage production of her classic novel, directed by Michael Greif, he of Rent<\/em> fame. In between bites, I grilled her about her much anticipated new novel, Dream Jungle<\/em>, which debuts this week.<\/p>\n

In Dream Jungle<\/em>, Hagedorn uses part history\u00a0\u2013 she intertwines the alleged discovery of an ancient \u201clost tribe\u201d in the remote hills of the Philippines with the problematic filming of Apocalypse Now<\/em> \u2013 intermixed with memories from her own life to create a tense, taut work of fiction that encompasses everything from the legacy of colonialism, class struggles, family relationships, and responsibilities to the inevitable love story (of sorts).<\/p>\n

AsianWeek<\/strong><\/em>: So where did find your initial inspiration for Dream Jungle<\/em>?
\nJessica Hagedorn<\/strong>: It was the death of a man. I don\u2019t read the paper every day, but on one particular day, I happened to be come across an article in The New York Times<\/em> about the death of Manuel Elizalde Jr., who was a very colorful figure I remembered from my childhood in the Philippines. Our families knew each other. I actually just wrote about this for a recent issue of Time Asia<\/em> [www.time.com\/time\/asia\/2003\/journey\/philippines.html<\/a>]. The scene in the book in which Paz [a Filipino American journalist who returns to her native Philippines to cover a story for an American publication] goes to talk to Zamora [Dream Jungle<\/em>\u2019s fictionalized version of Elizalde] is actually autobiographical. I was at my mother\u2019s house in San Francisco decades ago, and at the time, Elizalde was on The Dick Cavett Show<\/em>, I think. My mother said to me, \u201cDo you believe this? He\u2019s still being looked at as a heroic man!\u201d Reading the Times<\/em> article, I remembered all that, and eventually wrote a pitch for Dream Jungle<\/em>. …[click here for more<\/a>]\n

Author Interview<\/strong>: “Her Bum Is on Fire: Jessica Hagedorn debuts with her latest novel,” AsianWeek<\/em>, September 26, 2003<\/a><\/p>\n

Tidbit<\/strong>:<\/strong> The fabulous MIZZ Hagedorn was a guest, together with the equally wonderful Sabina Murray and Helen Zia, for the\u00a0Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program<\/a>‘s\u00a0“Contemporary Asian American Writers<\/a>”\u00a0public program on September 29, 2004.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2003<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"DreamHer Bum Is on Fire: Jessica Hagedorn debuts with her latest novel<\/strong><\/p>\n

After years of chatting on the phone and sending various e-mails back and forth, I finally got the chance to meet writer extraordinaire Jessica Hagedorn. With her classic coming-of-age debut novel, Dogeaters<\/em>, her compilation of Asian Pacific American writings, Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction<\/em>, which she edited, her various plays and her multimedia performance pieces \u2013 not to mention her inspiring politics \u2013 Hagedorn has long been recognized as both a leader and a mentor at the forefront of Asian Pacific America.<\/p>\n

On that recent Sunday morning in New York City, we finally came face-to-face in front of a closed bubble tea salon. She greets me with open arms, and she\u2019s as warm, energetic, passionate, and downright entertaining as I expected. No bubble green tea just yet. (A few months back, she actually sent me an entire list of the best bubble tea salons throughout lower Manhattan). Instead, we settled on a nearby Japanese restaurant.<\/p>\n

“The cast and crew hung out here almost every day when we were doing Dogeaters<\/em> at the Public [Theater],\u201d Hagedorn comments, referring to the much-lauded stage production of her classic novel, directed by Michael Greif, he of Rent<\/em> fame. In between bites, I grilled her about her much anticipated new novel, Dream Jungle<\/em>, which debuts this week.<\/p>\n

In Dream Jungle<\/em>, Hagedorn uses part history \u2013 she intertwines the alleged discovery of an ancient \u201clost tribe\u201d in the remote hills of the Philippines with the problematic filming of Apocalypse Now<\/em> \u2013 intermixed with memories from her own life to create a tense, taut work of fiction that encompasses everything from the legacy of colonialism, class struggles, family relationships, and responsibilities to the inevitable love story (of sorts).<\/p>\n

AsianWeek<\/strong><\/em>: So where did find your initial inspiration for Dream Jungle<\/em>?
\nJessica Hagedorn<\/strong>: It was the death of a man. I don\u2019t read the paper every day, but on one particular day, I happened to be come across an article in The New York Times<\/em> about the death of Manuel Elizalde Jr., who was a very colorful figure I remembered from my childhood in the Philippines. Our families knew each other. I actually just wrote about this for a recent issue of Time Asia<\/em> [www.time.com\/time\/asia\/2003\/journey\/philippines.html<\/a>]. The scene in the book in which Paz [a Filipino American journalist who returns to her native Philippines to cover a story for an American publication] goes to talk to Zamora [Dream Jungle<\/em>\u2019s fictionalized version of Elizalde] is actually autobiographical. I was at my mother\u2019s house in San Francisco decades ago, and at the time, Elizalde was on The Dick Cavett Show<\/em>, I think. My mother said to me, \u201cDo you believe this? He\u2019s still being looked at as a heroic man!\u201d Reading the Times<\/em> article, I remembered all that, and eventually wrote a pitch for Dream Jungle<\/em>. …[click here for more<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Author Interview<\/strong>: “Her Bum Is on Fire: Jessica Hagedorn debuts with her latest novel,” AsianWeek<\/em>, September 26, 2003<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2003<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,6,1511,1326,6535,136,137],"tags":[3598,84,6608,22,341,58,4337,10,51,25,2118,13,28,29],"class_list":["post-3422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-author-interview-profile","category-fiction","category-filipinao","category-filipinao-american","category-repost","category-southeast-asian","category-southeast-asian-american","tag-asianweek","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-civil-rights","tag-colonialism","tag-coming-of-age","tag-dream-jungle","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-jessica-hagedorn","tag-love","tag-politics","tag-race-racism"],"yoast_head":"\nDream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn + Author Interview [in AsianWeek] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/dream-jungle-by-jessicahagedorn-author-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn + Author Interview [in AsianWeek] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Her Bum Is on Fire: Jessica Hagedorn debuts with her latest novel After years of chatting on the phone and sending various e-mails back and forth, I finally got the chance to meet writer extraordinaire Jessica Hagedorn. With her classic coming-of-age debut novel, Dogeaters, her compilation of Asian Pacific American writings, Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction, which she edited, her various plays and her multimedia performance pieces \u2013 not to mention her inspiring politics \u2013 Hagedorn has long been recognized as both a leader and a mentor at the forefront of Asian Pacific America. On that recent Sunday morning in New York City, we finally came face-to-face in front of a closed bubble tea salon. She greets me with open arms, and she\u2019s as warm, energetic, passionate, and downright entertaining as I expected. No bubble green tea just yet. (A few months back, she actually sent me an entire list of the best bubble tea salons throughout lower Manhattan). Instead, we settled on a nearby Japanese restaurant. "The cast and crew hung out here almost every day when we were doing Dogeaters at the Public [Theater],\u201d Hagedorn comments, referring to the much-lauded stage production of her classic novel, directed by Michael Greif, he of Rent fame. In between bites, I grilled her about her much anticipated new novel, Dream Jungle, which debuts this week. In Dream Jungle, Hagedorn uses part history \u2013 she intertwines the alleged discovery of an ancient \u201clost tribe\u201d in the remote hills of the Philippines with the problematic filming of Apocalypse Now \u2013 intermixed with memories from her own life to create a tense, taut work of fiction that encompasses everything from the legacy of colonialism, class struggles, family relationships, and responsibilities to the inevitable love story (of sorts). AsianWeek: So where did find your initial inspiration for Dream Jungle? Jessica Hagedorn: It was the death of a man. I don\u2019t read the paper every day, but on one particular day, I happened to be come across an article in The New York Times about the death of Manuel Elizalde Jr., who was a very colorful figure I remembered from my childhood in the Philippines. Our families knew each other. I actually just wrote about this for a recent issue of Time Asia [www.time.com\/time\/asia\/2003\/journey\/philippines.html]. The scene in the book in which Paz [a Filipino American journalist who returns to her native Philippines to cover a story for an American publication] goes to talk to Zamora [Dream Jungle\u2019s fictionalized version of Elizalde] is actually autobiographical. I was at my mother\u2019s house in San Francisco decades ago, and at the time, Elizalde was on The Dick Cavett Show, I think. My mother said to me, \u201cDo you believe this? He\u2019s still being looked at as a heroic man!\u201d Reading the Times article, I remembered all that, and eventually wrote a pitch for Dream Jungle. ...[click here for more] Author Interview: "Her Bum Is on Fire: Jessica Hagedorn debuts with her latest novel," AsianWeek, September 26, 2003 Readers: Adult Published: 2003\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/dream-jungle-by-jessicahagedorn-author-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-09-26T11:47:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-17T14:49:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2003\/09\/Dream-Jungle.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"812\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1273\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn + Author Interview [in AsianWeek] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/dream-jungle-by-jessicahagedorn-author-interview\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn + Author Interview [in AsianWeek] - BookDragon","og_description":"Her Bum Is on Fire: Jessica Hagedorn debuts with her latest novel After years of chatting on the phone and sending various e-mails back and forth, I finally got the chance to meet writer extraordinaire Jessica Hagedorn. With her classic coming-of-age debut novel, Dogeaters, her compilation of Asian Pacific American writings, Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction, which she edited, her various plays and her multimedia performance pieces \u2013 not to mention her inspiring politics \u2013 Hagedorn has long been recognized as both a leader and a mentor at the forefront of Asian Pacific America. On that recent Sunday morning in New York City, we finally came face-to-face in front of a closed bubble tea salon. She greets me with open arms, and she\u2019s as warm, energetic, passionate, and downright entertaining as I expected. No bubble green tea just yet. (A few months back, she actually sent me an entire list of the best bubble tea salons throughout lower Manhattan). Instead, we settled on a nearby Japanese restaurant. \"The cast and crew hung out here almost every day when we were doing Dogeaters at the Public [Theater],\u201d Hagedorn comments, referring to the much-lauded stage production of her classic novel, directed by Michael Greif, he of Rent fame. In between bites, I grilled her about her much anticipated new novel, Dream Jungle, which debuts this week. In Dream Jungle, Hagedorn uses part history \u2013 she intertwines the alleged discovery of an ancient \u201clost tribe\u201d in the remote hills of the Philippines with the problematic filming of Apocalypse Now \u2013 intermixed with memories from her own life to create a tense, taut work of fiction that encompasses everything from the legacy of colonialism, class struggles, family relationships, and responsibilities to the inevitable love story (of sorts). AsianWeek: So where did find your initial inspiration for Dream Jungle? Jessica Hagedorn: It was the death of a man. I don\u2019t read the paper every day, but on one particular day, I happened to be come across an article in The New York Times about the death of Manuel Elizalde Jr., who was a very colorful figure I remembered from my childhood in the Philippines. Our families knew each other. I actually just wrote about this for a recent issue of Time Asia [www.time.com\/time\/asia\/2003\/journey\/philippines.html]. The scene in the book in which Paz [a Filipino American journalist who returns to her native Philippines to cover a story for an American publication] goes to talk to Zamora [Dream Jungle\u2019s fictionalized version of Elizalde] is actually autobiographical. I was at my mother\u2019s house in San Francisco decades ago, and at the time, Elizalde was on The Dick Cavett Show, I think. My mother said to me, \u201cDo you believe this? 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