July 8, 2005
Grub Street Reading at Porter Square
Did a fun reading for Grub Street with fellow teacher/writer Mark Rader (read great story about depressed Wisconsin ginseng farmer), hosted by the inestimable Christopher Castellani. at Porter Square Books--nice store, great crowd, although a very loud, tons-of-questions customer...
... made me feel a bit like I was having an out-of-body experience (or, an odd duet) while I was reading. Snarfed a beer, discussed like issues with fellow Grub Streeters, looked at watch and noticed time had flown a bit too swiftly, ran across lanes of traffic to T, mentally urged subway to go faster, physically moved people so I could run to the bus station, and saw on the monitor the bus had departed, but ran over there anyway (see earlier travelblog--I am sick of driving!)...not always less stressful to take Mass Transit. Also, it turned out the bus driver had not yet left because he was unsure of how to get to the Mass Pike. At first his pleas for help went unanswered--you must be joking, right? Finally, a nice young man stepped up to the plate. We did have a few harrowing "oops, we do NOT want to be in this exit-only lane" moments, accompanied by much honking from surrounding cars, and a few second thoughts about whether I'd been "lucky" to catch the bus after all. It wasn't quite "Speed," but quite interesting nonetheless.
Posted by marielee at 8:57 AM | TrackBack
May 8, 2005
Attacked on-line - yikes!
My goodness. I am really new to this bloggy thing, introduced by my old buddy from college days, Christian Crumlish of Mediajunkie (and Radio Free Blogistan) who so generously set up and is hosting this site (thanks xian!!!). So anyway, my publicist told me there's a very "cute" and "heartfelt" discussion going on about how some Korean adoptees really like SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER. SO I do a Google search and come up with this: Asian American Empowerment: ModelMinority.com - A Korean-American Journey. Yowch!!!! Being flamed solely because this article from the local paper mentions I am married to some WHITE GUY (honkey, caucasian, gringo, take your pick). That someone makes me a sell-out and also gives some of the participants of this "Asian American empowerment site" to write also sorts of vulgar and gross things about me.
The article, I think, was posted sincerely as news, but the replies from readers has quickly degenerated into a flame fest with me at the center. Please note that a few brave WOMEN (kudos to you!!!) called these anonymous posters on their illogic (i.e., how can they possibly deduce anything about me, or my work from this fact???) Of course, these women were promptly attacked, too, which makes me think that all the vitriol is coming from some other deep-seated place in these posters, and this article is just a useful "excuse" to vent their rage. It was also weird, the posting of the URL to my Brown website, somehow insinuating that by looking at my pic, they can further see what a sellout b**** I am. NICE!
Anyway, it always makes me sad when these interethnic/intertribal snarkfests happen. As if our communities don't have enough problems--here's all these smart, motivated people directing all energy into tearing down fellow minority people they don't even know, criticizing work they have not read...and then probably they'll probably go crying about how there's no Asian American representation in the media. That's why we started the AAWW, so we could have more voices out there, not fewer. In this age of irony, I'm sorry, but I have to ask sincerely, where is the love, guys?
Posted by marielee at 4:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Book party in NYC!
With a bunch of other amazing writers like Curtis Chin, Christina Chiu, Bino Realuyo, and Barbara Tran, I was one of the founder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop in 1991. I started writing Somebody's Daughter in 1993, so the book's almost as old as the Workshop. Fittingly, that's where I came back for my book party. We're in an excellent new loft space in Korea town, and the whole thing is quite professionally run by the erstwhile Quang Bao. He encouraged me to have a nice glass of wine before my reading, which I shan't do again, as it made me a bit tongue-tied.
The next day was NY Seoul, which is run by Max Han, who was also quote in the NY Times article on good Bulgogi places in NYC. The event was held at the Korean Cultural Services (an awesome space) and cosponsored by Also Known As, a Korean adoptee group. Another really great audience, a mixed group, and the AKA folks invited me out for drinks afterward--a really fun, intelligent group, really glad they are behind me and this work. Great jalapeno poppers, by the way!!!!
Posted by marielee at 3:58 PM | TrackBack
April 27, 2005
First week of the tour!
This has been some week. Did two "home" bookstores in Providence, the Brown U. Bookstore and Books on the Square (sold out at Books Sq.), and it wasn't even packed with a claque of my family (who are mostly in Minnesota).
Newton, MA's Newtonville Books' Books -n- Brews series was extremely amiable, as the owner, Tim, takes everyone out for a drink at an excellent restaurant next door - he's asked me back for the fall, and believe me, I will be there.
I also did a reading at the Cambridge Center for New Words, not technically a bookstore, but a wonderful place. Was VERY nervous abour driving in Cambridge during rush hour, had plenty of time to contemplate the idiocy of the auto as a mode of transporation while inching along for an hour in the Big Dig. But the Parking Gods were smiling on me, as I actually found some on-street parking, although the car next to mine had a boot on it, which made me rather anxious.
Yesterday was the UConn Co-op. More driving! I left plenty of time, as the Mapquest directions had weird arrows everywhere -> <-- ^ V seemingly defying the laws of physics. I missed one of the obscure little roads (appropriately named Bedlam) and drove on and on and on believing Bedlam was just around the bend (it was). Adding to the complexity was the fact that all the towns along the road were SO small they were not on any map. It wasn't until I saw signs for Hartford that I realized I'd overshot by a good 45 mins - uh oh.
Trusting in Murphy's law - I pulled over (like a good citizen, plus didn't want to make the panicky call AND drive at the same time) to call, only to find I had copied down the fax # of the store! Eeee! Once I was back on track, I also got lost in Storrs, as Mapquest told me I should be seeing the campus in 3 miles, and after 4.5 I saw nothing except a few empty-looking houses *and* the town's name did not match up with the town I was looking for. I stopped at a fire station and NO ONE was home - were they at a fire? Knocked on a few doors and heard scary dogs barking. Finally I flagged down a policeman who directed me to drive, say, another 100 feet until I saw the campus.... Mapquest is not infallible!
Ok, I came in all wild eyed and mussed, twenty minutes late! But my host, Suzy Staubach, was extremely accommodating, or maybe all the writers look like that. Had a good reading, she asked me back, too. I'm definitely coming back, as now I know the way. With gas prices, I think I spent about $50 doing this reading.
On the drive back, I spotted multiple gun stores, AND a "country-style auction" going on. I almost felt like I was back in northern Minnesota...
I had that great after-the-reading adrenaline thrill, but then I listened to NPR about all these people not having health insurance - too sick to work, no work no insurance - they called it a "death spiral" and cited statistics about how people without insurance seem to die a lot faster, for some reason, and that brought me back to earth....
Posted by marielee at 5:54 PM | TrackBack
April 6, 2005
BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE
Here's my book tour dates so far...
Brown University bookstore
244 Thayer St.
Providence, RI
April 14 at 4 p.m.
Newtonville Books
296 Walnut St.
Newton, MA
April 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Center for New Words
186 Hampshire St.
Cambridge, MA
April 21 at 7:00 p.m.
Books on the Square
471 Angell St.
Providence, RI
April 23 at 1 p.m.
UCONN Books
2075 Hillside Road Unit 1019
Storrs, CT
April 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
16 West 32nd Street, Suite 10A
New York NY 10001-3814
May 4 at 7 p.m.
New York Seoul
Thursday, May 5th, 2005
6:30pm - 9pm
Korean Cultural Service
460 Park Avenue
6th Floor
Tatnuck Books
335 Chandler Street,
Worcester, MA
May 14 2 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith
279 Harvard St.
Brookline, MA
May 24 at 7 p.m
Borders Books
1390 W. University Ave
St. Paul, MN 55104
Phone:(651) 641-0026
June 7 at 7 p.m.
University of Minnesota, Coffman Center
Minneapolis, MN
June 8, 2 p.m.
Micawber’s
2238 Carter Ave
St. Paul, MN
June 8 at 7 p.m.
Barnes & Noble
3225 W 69th St.
Edina, MN
June 9 at 7:00 p.m.
Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network Conference
July 22 –25
Detroit, MI
Bergan County Library, NJ
September TBA
Asian American Journalists Association National Convention
August 19
Hyatt Hotel, Minneapolis, MN
Lewis & Clark College
Portland, OR
Fall 2005 TBA
Porter Square Books
Cambridge, MA
Fall 2005 TBA
Educational Alliance
New York City
November 1, 2005
http://www.edalliance.org/artschool/art_cat_txt.php
NCTE Convention
November 2005
Dire Literary Series
Cambridge, MA
December 2, 2005
RADIO APPEARANCES
Reading With Robin (Readingwithrobin.com)
The Seeker (www.touchedbyadoption.org)
Leonard Lopate WNYC (date TBA)
Pacifica/KQED (date TBA)
Posted by marielee at 6:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 1, 2005
Bookstore Flyer
Here's a bookstore flyer in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format you can download and print.
Posted by marielee at 8:29 PM