“Going Back to the Basement” A Roundtable on Creativity, Critique, and the Stewarding of Asian American Literary Arts

ABSTRACT

This roundtable features writers, scholars, editors, and organizers who are invested in Asian American literature. The conversation touched on literary history, the convergence of creative writing and critique, and the importance of grass roots programs and organizing.

KEYWORDS:

• Asian American literature
• Asian American literary history
• community
• editorial practices
• stewardship

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, who was integral in dreaming up and coordinating this conversation. This roundtable would not be possible without his knowledge, generosity, and care.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. NourbeSe Philip, Zong! (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2008); Robin Coste Lewis, The Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems (New York: Random House, 2017); and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, The Age of Phillis (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2022).

2. Myung Mi Kim, Commons (Oakland: University of California Press, 2002).

3. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee (1982, repr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2022); and Layli Long Soldier, Whereas (Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press, 2017).

4. Mai Der Vang, Yellow Rain (Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press, 2021); and Solmaz Sharif, Look (Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press, 2016).

5. See, for instance, José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (New York: New York University Press, 2009).

6. Matthew Salesses, Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping (New York: Catapult, 2021).

7. See, for instance, Paul Tran, All the Flowers Kneeling (New York: Penguin Books, 2022); and Franny Choi, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On (New York: HarperCollins, 2022).

8. R. Zamora Linmark, Rolling the R’s 20^th Anniversary Edition (Los Angeles: Kaya Press, 2016); and Sesshu Foster, City Terrace Field Manual (Los Angeles: Kaya Press, 1996).

9. Vanessa Willoughby, “Interview with a Journal: The Georgia Review,” Literary Hub, September 24, 2021, https://lithub.com/interview-with-a-journal-the-georgia-review/.

10. Elaine Castillo, How to Read Now: Essays (New York: Penguin Random House, 2022); and America Is Not the Heart (New York: Penguin Random House, 2019).

11. See, for instance, Kiese Laymon, Long Division (New York: Scribner, 2021); and the MacArthur Fellows Program, https://www.macfound.org/programs/awards/fellows/.

12. See Nightboat Books Editorial Fellowship, https://nightboat.org/editorial-fellowship/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aline Lo

Aline Lo is a scholar of American refugee literature and Hmong American Studies. She currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Asian American literature at Colorado College. She has published on Hmong, Southeast Asian American, and refugee film and literature.

Swati Rana

Swati Rana is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is author of Race Characters: Ethnic Literature and the Figure of the American Dream, which explores how social personhood and literary persona intersect. Her writing has appeared in American Literature, American Literary History, Asian American Literary Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Granta, Journal of Asian American Studies, The Paris Review, Wasafiri, and elsewhere.