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            BW July 2013
The Imaginary Writer
Featured Writer: Gene Luen Yang
A Treasure Trove

We always do a Banana jig when our Banana Writers share their writing success with us !

 

After publishing her short story Mama's Boy on BW Melanie Lee has created a wonderful book Imaginary Friends. In this article, she speaks honestly about the journey to getting published.

 

 

 

Gene Luen Yang is the bestselling author of American Born Chinese - the first graphic novel to be a finalist for the National Book Award. He writes for the hugely popular Avatar series and is a champion for using graphic novels as educational tools in the classroom.

 

The monkey loving Gene shares his expertise and sense of fun in an interview with BW

 

 

She realised that he loved her more than he ever showed and perhaps he died a sad man. She remembered how she had hurt him with words and regaled in the joys of his crushed ego, partly because of her own unhappiness of a life with him. 

 

Read a beautiful story of love and loss by a talented Indian writer.

 

Download a FREE comic by AMAZING graphic novelist Peter Tran!!
Featured Writer: David Henry Hwang
Riots in Little India 
Featured Writer: Kevin Kwan
Shoot the rain from the sky...

To the western world, David Henry Hwang is a playwright, librettist and screenwriter. But to many Asian writers he is someone who speaks out bravely against prejudices to Asian artists.

 

The Tony award winning writer talks to BW about facing highs and lows, cultural misunderstandings and why "Yellow Face" in theatre is wrong.

The Photo

Bluntly put, happy people don't riot.

 

On 8 December 2013 around 400 South Asian migrant workers battled police and set vehicles ablaze in Singapore's worst riot in decades.

 

A Singaporean writer gives his honest opinion about the exploitation of migrant workers and society's role in the matter.

 

 

Photos are the keys to our memories. They can bind people together or tear families apart.

 

Read the incredibly moving story of how a photograph of Elizabeth Taylor impacted the life of a Filipina-Burmese-Spanish writer.

The fabulous Kevin Kwan chats about writer's block, working for Oprah Winfrey and why new writers should release their "inner freak."

This morning Clara Chua was found dead. Yesterday, with regret sufficiently clouding her face, Clara was going to shoot the rain from the sky.

 

The BW team were blown away by a tragic, delicately written short story by a Singaporean writer.

 

 

Deer Hunting in Paris
Featured Writer: Amy Tan
China: A land flowing with the...
The Cynic

For when the cynic falls in love

It does not hit them all of a sudden

It creeps into their very heart and soul

 

Read the beautiful poem by a young Pakistani writer in Malaysia.

Do Asians all look the same?

 

Dyske is the creative genius behind alllooksame.com the website that went viral and attracted millions of hits across the world. Hailing fron Japan, the clever cultural critique shares with us his fascinating views on stereotypes and social norms.

In her two decades as a author, Amy Tan has sold millions of books, won numerous awards and importantly was featured in an episode of The Simpsons!

 

But with success often comes criticism and challenges. In this exclusive interview with BW,  Amy Tan gives great advice to new writers and shares her wisdom about how to deal with the haters.

Featured Writer: Dyske Suematsu
Is The Publishing Industry Racist?

Is The Western Publishing Industry Institutionally Racist?

 

How can Asian readers help bring positive change into the publishing industry? See what our very own “Top Banana” has to say about it in Huffington Post. 

Babel of tongues
For foreigners who do not have a fairly good knowledge of China, Chinese is either Mandarin or Cantonese, which is nothing but a glaring misconception.

 

A Chinese writer gives a fascinating insight into the cultural value of dialects and why they should not be repressed in China.

Paula Lee is a Korean American writer you don't want to mess with. For her, hunting deer with guns is just another day at the office.

 

Read an extract from her gripping memoir that would make Donald Duck quiver in fear.

Take(me)away
Featured Writers: The Sam Willows
My Odds on Finding a China Wife

Behind the food and smoke of Chinese takeaways are families with strong stories waiting to be told.  

 

Read the touching true life story of a girl growing up in a takeaway and the challenges her family faced.

With more than 330,000 views on their YouTube page, The Sam Willows is a musical quartet that is taking Asia by storm. After their sold-out album launch in 2012,the band has toured North America and produced a music video with musical legend Steve Lillywhite. Share in their journey as songwriters.

She of stunning beauty, silky long black hair and unending slender limb, demure, gentle, loyal and filial, and a lioness in the bedroom to boot...

 

A young, single East Asian guy shares his "mathematical" journey to find a wife more beautiful than Zhang Ziyi.

 The Eggspat
Featured Writer: Shuchi Singh Kalra
Longing

Meet a man who is an EGG. "White on the outside and yellow on the inside." 

 

 

Bradley Wayburne has spent his entire life in Hong Kong and is still seen as an outsider. Read his funny account of surviving in SE Asia as an EGG.

 

How madness drives me to a lonesome place.

Drifting from yesterday, to today, to tomorrow,

Those words hang within me, never letting go.

 

Read the heartfelt poem by a romantic British Chinese poet living in Oslo

Shuchi Singh Kalra is the owner of Pixie Dust Writing Studio and the hugely popular Indian Freelance Writers Blog.

 

Read her excellent advice about how to be a successful freelance writer and the art of marketing your work

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