Authors Electric

Poster for my master class for the International Writers' Collective Last summer, I gave a master class in novel writing for the International Writers’ Collective . Or rather, I squirmed in the hot seat while director Sarah Carriger peppered me with a series of home questions about my novel The Dancing Girl and the Turtle . I did my best to answer her as well as the lively crowd that kept lobbing new ones at me. There’s so much more to say in response to all those questions but here I want to zoom in on two aspects of that class: the use of violence and historical fact in fiction. silence The inciting incident of my novel is the rape of Song Anyi. The event is horrible in every possible way but, to my mind, the real violation comes later.  The Dancing Girl and the Turtle is set in Shanghai 1937. The city is a no-holds-barred kind of place where everything and everyone is available for sale at the right price. In that market, Anyi would be damaged goods if her...

The Amsterdam canal house is built of massive grey cornerstones and variegated red bricks. A clock gable stands on top with a hook sticking out. The hook is for hoisting pianos and wardrobes and king-sized beds. The doors are too narrow and the stairs so vertiginous for anything wider than a laundry basket to pass. Bride at Nihon no Hanga. Photo credit: Karen Kao Inside this house hides the private collection of Elise Wessels. For decades, she’s traveled to Japan, bringing woodblock prints back to Amsterdam. Her museum  Nihon no hanga  is a treasure house of Japanese art from the full suit of armor that sits menacingly in the entry hall to the bridal couple who adorn the mantelpiece upstairs. But it’s the print collection we’ve come to see. One Hundred Aspects Of The Moon   Yoshitoshi signature and seal. Photo credit: Karen Kao Tsukioka Yoshitoshi  was a master woodcut printmaker (1839-1892) widely acclaimed for his collec...