{"id":8295,"date":"2009-11-20T08:33:06","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T13:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=8295"},"modified":"2018-11-10T23:59:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-11T04:59:15","slug":"leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Leaving<\/a>On Old-Timers, Boxing, and Lots of Sex (mostly off the page …)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next April, if you happen to be in the DC area, you might be lucky enough to meet Peter Bacho at the Smithsonian as he presents Leaving Yesler<\/em>, his first foray into the young adult readers market which debuts late March 2010 from Pleasure Boat Studio<\/a> out of New York. \u201cI\u2019ll read for food,\u201d Bacho promises.<\/p>\n

Bacho\u2019s been here at the Smithsonian before, back in December 2006, as a panelist for \u201cFilipino American Literary Writers,\u201d together with M. Evelina Galang, Marianne Villanueva, and Luis Francia. Truth be told, he and Villanueva had the audience giggling and occasionally wide-eyed with shocked surprise. Model minorities don\u2019t say those<\/em> things.<\/p>\n

In spite of his immigrant roots (Bacho\u2019s parents are both from Cebu, Philippines, although his Wikipedia entry erroneously claims him to be half-Filipino and half-Yakima Indian), his summa cum laude<\/em> undergraduate degree from Seattle University, his JD and LLD from the University of Washington, his experience in Seattle\u2019s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and his various professor-ships in Washington universities and colleges, Bacho is anything but model minority, truth be told \u2026 nor are his characters, thank goodness!<\/p>\n

His first book, Cebu<\/a><\/em> (1991),\u00a0about a Filipino American priest who arrives in the Philippines to bury his mother in her homeland, won him an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He won both a Washington Governor\u2019s Writers Award (renamed the Washington State Book Award)\u00a0and The Murray Morgan Prize for his collection of short stories, A Dark Blue Suit <\/em>(1997). Then he did a children\u2019s title, Boxing in Black and White<\/em> (1999), which got him on the Center for Children\u2019s Books Best Books List. Next came Nelson\u2019s Run<\/em> (2002), about an oversexed young man who travels to the Philippines after the accidental death of his father, followed by my personal favorite, Entrys<\/a><\/em> (2005),\u00a0about a teenaged Filipino Native American hapa Vietnam War veteran\u2019s challenging attempts to re-enter civilian life.<\/p>\n

Leaving Yesler<\/em> definitely treads on familiar Bacho territory: religion, boxing, immigration, and \u2013 of course \u2013 lots of sex (\u201cmostly off the page,\u201d Bacho insists in this case for the sake of younger readers, ahem!). Bobby Vicente is five months shy of turning 18. His family has just shrunk by half, after losing his mother to cancer and his older brother to Vietnam. His father, Antonio, an old-timer Filipino American immigrant who once had a glorious boxing past, is determined that his only family will not only avoid war, but somehow make it out their Yesler housing project in Seattle. Antonio doesn\u2019t have a whole lot of time left to both educate and train sweet, kind-hearted Bobby. What happens in that fast-forward week before Bobby takes his GED \u2013 from falling in love, to having conversations with a dead brother not to mention a martyred saint, to witnessing murder \u2013 will literally determine the rest of Bobby\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kid survives,\u201d Bacho quips. \u201cGotta give the little kiddies hope and all!\u201d<\/p>\n

I have to ask \u2026 now that you\u2019re moving into the young adult market \u2026 do you have kids yourself?<\/strong>
\nYes, one daughter [now 27 years old] from a former marriage. I like to say I\u2019ve been married 35 years \u2013 if I put them all together, that is.<\/p>\n

Why write for young adults now?<\/strong>
\nWhy not? It\u2019s getting increasingly edgier and, I think, more interesting.\u00a0I mean, Yesler<\/em> is a Filipino American novel without a Filipino protagonist.<\/p>\n

Oh, no \u2026 you can\u2019t give TOO much away \u2026 besides, culturally, that protagonist is all Filipino American!<\/strong>
\nTrue. For some Filipinos, especially those arriving after 1968, there’s almost a racial and linguistic purity \u2013 stuff we never bothered with.<\/p>\n

Purity … that’s ironic, given the tragic history of Filipino colonialism, no?<\/strong>
\nIt is that, but it\u2019s expected because colonized people imitate the colonizer. …[click here for more<\/a>]\n

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

Published<\/strong>: 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Old-Timers, Boxing, and Lots of Sex (mostly off the page …) Next April, if you happen to be in the DC area, you might be lucky enough to meet Peter Bacho at the Smithsonian as he presents Leaving Yesler, his first foray into the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,1326,137,31],"tags":[84,6608,58,75,189,2750,13,39,2751,29,44,45],"class_list":["post-8295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-author-interview-profile","category-fiction","category-filipinao-american","category-southeast-asian-american","category-young-adult-readers","tag-betrayal","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-death","tag-father-son-relationship","tag-leaving-yesler","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-peter-bacho","tag-race-racism","tag-siblings","tag-war"],"yoast_head":"\nLeaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview - 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\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Old-Timers, Boxing, and Lots of Sex (mostly off the page …) Next April, if you happen to be in the DC area, you might be lucky enough to meet Peter Bacho at the Smithsonian as he presents Leaving Yesler, his first foray into the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-20T13:33:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-11-11T04:59:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2009\/11\/Leaving-Yesler.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"510\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"874\" \/>\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":"Leaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview - 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\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview - BookDragon","og_description":"On Old-Timers, Boxing, and Lots of Sex (mostly off the page …) Next April, if you happen to be in the DC area, you might be lucky enough to meet Peter Bacho at the Smithsonian as he presents Leaving Yesler, his first foray into the...","og_url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/","og_site_name":"BookDragon","article_published_time":"2009-11-20T13:33:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-11-11T04:59:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":510,"height":874,"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2009\/11\/Leaving-Yesler.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SmithsonianAPA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/","name":"Leaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview - BookDragon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-11-20T13:33:06+00:00","dateModified":"2018-11-11T04:59:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/leaving-yesler-by-peter-bacho-author-interview\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Leaving Yesler by Peter Bacho + Author Interview"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#website","url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/","name":"BookDragon","description":"Books for the Diverse Reader","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/a00f6dcfcb279c75f3f992ad2919d51d","name":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/79b5f08575e8962bd00388cd126d374b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/@SmithsonianAPA"],"url":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author\/riemert\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8295"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44695,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295\/revisions\/44695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}