by Terry Hong
I wondered if my cast of characters might feel off-putting to publishers, too bizarre or unconventional, and if it’d be easier if their cultural backgrounds were removed from the equation [but] my agent and editor never once saw my characters’ backgrounds as anything but enriching to the story. Continue reading
by Terry Hong
“For too long I’ve been preoccupied with ‘belonging’ . . . I realized what really matters most is that which keeps us grounded.” Continue reading
by Terry Hong
“I was trying to be subversive in not mentioning any character’s ethnicity … that’s how endemic the whole ethnic literature box was back then, this expectation that any Asian American story deal with discrimination or identity or diaspora. It’s still like that in many ways.” Continue reading
by Terry Hong
“Stories are more entertaining, more compelling when examining those behaving badly.” Continue reading
“With a novel, the end felt so far off, always beyond the horizon, and that was a terrifying feeling. Eventually, I had to teach myself to be okay with that, to turn the uncertainty and fear into a productive state of mind.” Continue reading
by Terry Hong
“I’ve been a slam poet, a fiction writer, a performer, and a journalist, and while I have all manner of manuscripts scattered across my apartment and office—poetry, short stories, and even a novel—I’m very picky about what I want to get published, and what will ultimately represent me. This is probably a very bad strategy for a writing career, but there you go.” Continue reading
by Terry Hong
“I can’t begin to describe how much publication fucks with my head …” Continue reading
