Words Matter: Conversations with Asian American Writers

Intersections: Asian and Pacific American Transcultural Studies

by King-Kok Cheung (Editor)

In this age of rapid transition, Asian American studies and American studies in general are being reconfigured to reflect global migrations and the diverse populations of the United States. Asian American literature, in particular, has embodied the crisis of identity that is at the heart of larger academic and political debates surrounding diversity and the inclusion and exclusion of immigrant and refugee groups. These issues underlie the very principles on which literature, culture, and art are produced, preserved, taught, and critiqued.

Words Matter is the first collection of interviews with 20th-century Asian American writers. The conversations that have been gathered here―interviews with twenty writers possessing unique backgrounds, perspectives, thematic concerns, and artistic priorities―effectively dispel any easy categorizations of people of Asian descent. These writers comment on their own work and speak frankly about aesthetics, politics, and the challenges they have encountered in pursuing a writing career. They address, among other issues, the expectations attached to the label "Asian American," the burden of representation shouldered by ethnic artists, and the different demands of "mainstream" and ethnic audiences.

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

King-Kok Cheung is an American literary critic specializing in Asian American literature and is a professor in the department of English at UCLA. Cheung received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Tamiko Beyer]

great interview with Myung Mi Kim by James Kyun-Jin Lee in here