Asian American Writers: LA Literary Scene in the 1980s and Naomi Hirahara

Pacific Asian American Women Writers-West (PAAWW-West) - 1980s Photo taken after a reading that included Wanda Coleman

Front L-R: Amy Uyematsu, Akemi Kikumura, Joyce Nako, Naomi Hirahara, Emma Gee, Momoko Iko

Middle row L-R: Pam Tom, Velina Houston (behind Joyce), Cecilia Brainard, Ardis Nishikawa

Back Row L-R: Jude Narita, Fe Koons, Wanda Coleman, Chungmi Kim

I had a wonderful time last Saturday at the launch of Naomi Hirahara's new book, Grave on Grand Avenue, second of her Ellie Rush series. The event was held at the Japanese American Library in downtown Los Angeles. There were bento lunches for those who wanted to eat, followed by Haiku readings by some Japanese American writers. Naomi then did a power point presentation of her evolution as a crime writer. She was articulate, funny, informative, and had the audience in the palm of her hand.

There was book signing afterwards.

Review of Eleanor Ty's The Politics of the Visible in Asian North American Narratives

Someone forwarded this to me. Eleanor Ty looks at various books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept (by Cecilia Brainard, University of Michigan Press):

"The obvious strength of Ty's work is the lucid insistence with which she evokes the invisible dimensions of Asian North Americanidentities,which is accompanied by a paradoxical recognition of the visible." - from a review of Eleanor Ty's The Politics of the Visible in Asian North American Narratives. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004