Author of East-West novels and all sorts of nonfiction, ghostwriter, MFA advisor, former painter… and current photopainter! — Novels! If you love novels about Americans in Asia and Asians in America and the families that form between them, you may have read my fiction. In the 1990s I published two novels, Face and Cloud Mountain, based on my family’s mixed-race history and my examination of my own Chinese-American identity:

How one novelist reconnected with the ancestors she never met —

Ambiguity can enhance your plot’s complexity — The pandemic has turned me into a die-hard fan of British writer-producer Sally Wainwright. Her shows include Last Tango in Halifax, Gentleman Jack, and Happy Valley. Her detective series Scott & Bailey ran for five seasons, which my husband and I are currently bingeing. …

Finding a memoir’s touchstone in its opening pages — Have you ever really considered the purpose of introductions…or forewords…or prefaces…or prologues? Do you even know the difference between these various types of “front matter”? I’ve written in most of these forms, but I never gave their distinctions much thought until recently, when I was poring for the umpteenth time…

Whether your work deserves to sink or sail will depend on your creative perspective — As a writer and teacher of writing, I’m all too familiar with the danger of reshuffling rather than revising. Especially lately, I often feel as if I’m just rearranging the deckchairs to avoid the inevitable fate of my titanic memoir. I’ve been working on the thing now, off and on…

Extreme longevity is a mixed blessing — at best — “Why can’t I just take a pill?” my mother has pleaded over and over since she turned 100. “I don’t want to be here anymore.” It’s a perfectly reasonable question, with no good answer. And that’s just not fair. …