Literary Fiction by People of Color discussion

“There aren’t a lot of you out there”: What? Let’s fix our female Asian-American writer blind spot now
Who says Asian American women aren't writing fiction? "We are everywhere if you only look!"
CELESTE NG

athttp://www.salon.com/2015/01/01/there...

This summer, I traveled around the U.S. to promote my debut novel, “Everything I Never Told You.” At one university where I’d been invited to speak, I asked the professor hosting me how he’d found me. He admitted he’d needed an Asian American woman fiction writer to balance his speaker lineup. “There aren’t a lot of you out there,” he said, with evident embarrassment.

Many universities and events deliberately try to select diverse speakers, and I think it’s a fine way to expose audiences to writers of different backgrounds. But I was startled to hear there weren’t many Asian American women fiction writers. Off the top of my head, I could think of several dozen.

Still, I’d heard similar statements throughout my book tour, in multiple cities: sometimes in delighted surprise at having found me, sometimes in disappointment at finding only me. I heard it enough to realize that even many serious readers — the kind of people who come to author readings on gorgeous summer evenings — just can’t name any Asian American women writers beyond the phenomenally well-known Amy Tan.

This blind spot is all the more surprising because 2014 has been full of attempts to highlight issues of diversity in literature, and to move the literary default away from, well, white men.

Early on, 2014 was designated the “Year of Reading Women.” Partly inspired by the annual VIDA count — which for four straight years has shown a huge gender disparity in major literary publications — the #ReadWomen2014 movement encouraged readers to do just that.

In May, Book Expo America was widely criticized when the initial lineup for BookCon, its public event, contained virtually no women and virtually no people of color. The #WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign arose in response, to promote greater diversity in children’s and YA literature. (Full disclosure: I took part in a BookCon panel myself, in the awkward position of a woman of color who had actually been invited months before the controversy.)

In June, a ranting essay by the blogger Ed Champion sparked a discussion on the misogyny and sexism that still pervade the literary sphere. And a reprise in September, in which Champion went after the novelist Porochista Khakpour on Twitter, put yet another spotlight on the way women writers are often perceived and criticized.

In other words, in 2014, we might have expected awareness of women writers and writers of color to be on the rise. And I still hope it is, on the whole. Yet there it was, that statement I heard surprisingly often: “There just aren’t many Asian American women writers.”

Several years ago, frustrated by similar remarks about authors of color, the writer and critic Roxane Gay compiled a list of them, aptly titled “We Are Many. We Are Everywhere.” Inspired by Gay’s list, I put out a call on Twitter for names of Asian American women writers. Within hours, I was deluged with suggestions. Even after I narrowed the focus to authors who had published a book of fiction — the type of speaker most venues seek — the list swelled into the hundreds.

* * *

Why is there such a blind spot when it comes to Asian American women writers? Women, writers of color, and Asians are all often overlooked, so this particular demographic faces a triple challenge. But after putting together this list, I suspect there may be some other factors as well.

First, we need to widen what we think of when we think “Asian.” The default tendency is to think East Asian — Chinese, Japanese, Korean and so on — but there are also huge numbers of Southeast Asian and South Asian authors. All of these writers add new voices and new perspectives to the culture.

Second, we need to look beyond the “typical” Asian. Look at the list below; you’ll see names like Nguyen, Banerjee and Wong, but you’ll also see names we don’t immediately associate with Asia: Ruthanne Lum McCunn, for example, author of “A Thousand Pieces of Gold”; Sherry Thomas, author of more than 15 romance novels and two-time winner of the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award; Nina McConigley, whose debut collection, “Cowboys and East Indians,” won the 2014 PEN Open Book Award. Some of the authors on this list identify as fully Asian; some are part Asian; some are adopted; some use their married names; some use pen names. In short, many more authors identify as Asian American writers than you might realize from a quick glance at the spines on the bookshelf.

Third, when we talk about “writers,” we’re often really thinking “writers of literary fiction.” In fact, there are quite a few Asian American women writing literary fiction, but there are also dozens writing in other genres, everything from YA to middle grade fiction to historical fiction to romance to sci-fi/fantasy to graphic novels. Many are bestsellers and/or award-winners within their genres. Just as we need to recognize and overcome our blind spot toward Asian American women writers, we need to recognize and overcome the blind spot many critics also have toward so-called genre fiction.

* * *

On social media, many people were understandably offended at the suggestion that Asian American women weren’t writing fiction. “People think we don’t exist???” tweeted @NayomiMunaweera. “Like Bigfoot? Ridiculous. We are everywhere if you only look!” But I’ve mostly found that this perception comes from lack of awareness, rather than dismissiveness. The readers, professors and event organizers who’ve said such things to me sincerely want to add diversity to their lineups. They just don’t know where to look.

That’s where I hope this list will help. If you want to find us, here’s where some of us are. No list can ever include all Asian American women writers — which is part of the point — but it’s a place to start.

* * *

An Incomplete List of Asian American Women Writers Who Have Published at Least One Book of Fiction

What do you mean by “Asian”?

If the writer self-identified as Asian or was identified to me as such, I included her.

What do you mean by “American”?

If the writer has/had a significant presence in the U.S. (was born here, moved here, works here, etc.) I included her regardless of nationality.

What do you mean by “women”?

If the writer self-identified as female or was identified to me as female, I included her.

Why only writers who have “published at least one book”?

One aim of this list is to help universities, conferences and bookstores increase the diversity in their speakers, so I narrowed the list to authors with published books, which is typically expected of presenters. (Below you’ll also find a partial list of Asian American writers who’ve published fiction but haven’t yet published full-length works.)

The list includes author information — website, Twitter handle, etc. — where possible, as provided by the authors or the people who suggested these authors, to encourage readers to discover their works and event organizers to get in touch.

Why only writers “of fiction”?

I’ve included only fiction writers here (in any genre), partly because of the comments I heard here about the lack of Asian American women fiction writers, in particular, and partly to save my own sanity. There were many, many names I left off in nonfiction, poetry, playwriting and more.

I encourage anyone who’s interested to compile lists for these other genres, as well as to consult other excellent lists others have created, including this list of Asian American speculative fiction writers, Roxane Gay’s list of writers of color and this list of Canadian women writers of Asian descent.

Why didn’t you include …?

This list is not complete. This list can never be complete. It’s impossible to list every Asian American woman fiction writer, because there are, in fact, a lot of us out there. I encourage you to add other names in the comments.

Renée Ahdieh (@rahdieh; “The Wrath and the Dawn”)

Sharbari Ahmed (@sharbarizohra; “The Ocean of Mrs. Nagai: Stories”)

Mia Alvar (@MiaAlvar; “In the Country: Stories”)

Solace Ames (@solacewrites; “The Dom Project; The Submission Gift”)

Gina Apostal (@ginaapostol; “Gun Dealer’s Daughter” and others)

Swati Avasthi (@SwatiAvasthi; “Chasing Shadows”; “Split”)

Varsha Bajaj (@varshabajaj; “Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood”)

Shauna Singh Baldwin (@SSinghBaldwin; “The Selector of Souls”; “What the Body Remembers”; and others)

Shoban Bantwal (“The Full Moon Bride”)

Monica Bhide (@mbhide; “The Devil in Us: Stories”)

Livia Blackburne (@lkblackburne; “Midnight Thief” and others)

Kendare Blake (@KendareBlake; “Anna Dressed in Blood” and others)

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (“When the Rainbow Goddess Wept”; “Woman With Horns and Other Stories”; and others)

Lori Bryant-Woolridge (@StillettoU; “Read Between the Lies”; “Hitts and Mrs.”; and others)

Marina Budhos (“The Professor of Light”; “Tell Us We’re Home”; and others)

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (“Ms. Hempel Chronicles”; “Madeleine Is Sleeping”)

Lan Cao (@lancaowrites;”Monkey Bridge”; “The Lotus and the Storm”)

Jax Cassidy (@jaxcassidy; “Shibuya Moment”; “Brush With Desire”; and others)

Stepthh Cha (@stephycha; “Follow Her Home”; “Beware Beware”)

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (“Dictee”)

Crystal Chan (“Bird”)

Lan Samantha Chang (“Hunger”; “Inheritance”; and others)

Sona Charaipotra (@sona_c; “Tiny Pretty Things”)

Justina Chen (@JustinaYChen; “North of Beautiful”; “Return to Me”; and others)

Kirstin Chen (@kirstin_chen; “Soy Sauce for Beginners”)

Cherry Cheva (@cherrycheva; “She’s So Money”; “DupliKate”; and others)

Sook Nyul Choi (“The Year of Impossible Goodbyes” and others)

Susan Choi (“My Education”; “American Woman”; and others)

Yangsze Choo (@yangszechoo; “The Ghost Bride”)

Catherine Chung (@chung_catherine; “Forgotten Country”)

Sonya Chung (“Long for This World”)

Ying Chang Compestine (“Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party” and others)

Sylvia Day/Livia Dare/S.J. Day) (“Captivated by You” and others)

Sonali Dev (@Sonali_Dev; “A Bollywood Affair”)

Chitra B. Divakaruni (@cdivakaruni; “Oleander Girl”; “The Mistress of Spices”; and others)

Anjali Mitter Duva (@AnjaliMDuva; “Faint Promise of Rain”)

Deanna Fei (@deannafei; “A Thread of Sky”)

Eilis Flynn (“The Sleeper Awakes”; “Wear Black”; and others)

Ru Freeman (@rufreeman; “On Sal Mal Lane”; “A Disobedient Girl”)

Kim Fu (@skimfu; “For Today I Am a Boy”)

M. Evelina Galang (@herwildamself; “Her Wild American Self: Stories”; “Angel de la Luna”; and others)

Indira Ganesan (@GanesanI; “As Sweet As Honey”; “Inheritance”; and others)

V.V. Ganeshananthan (@vasugi; “Love Marriage”)

Anju Gattani (@Anju_Gattani; “Duty and Desire”)

Molly Gaudry (@MollyGaudry; “We Take Me Apart” and others)

Tess Gerritsen (@tessgerritsen; The Rizzoli/Isles series and others)

Kelly Loy Gilbert (@KellyLoyGilbert; “Conviction”; “Nothing Gold Can Stay”)

Maurene Goo (@mauxbot; “Since You Asked”)

Ilene W. Gregorio (@IWGregorio; “None of the Above”)

Jessica Hagedorn (“Dogeaters”; “Toxicology”; and others)

Frances Lee Hall (@fleehall; “Fried Wonton”)

Jenny Han (@jennyhan; “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and others)

Tanuja Desai Hidier (@ThisIsTanuja; “Born Confused”; “Bombay Blues”)

Tess Uriza Holthe (“When the Elephants Dance”; “The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes”)

Charlotte Huang (@charlottexhuang; “For the Record”)

Yang Huang (“Living Treasures”)

Mindy Hung (@MindyHungSpace; “Trip”)

Angela Mi-Young Hur (“The Queens of K-Town”)

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Great list! Bill is going to love this!

In the article, she refers to Roxane Gay's list. It's in this essay:
http://therumpus.net/2012/08/we-are-m...