What is a mother?
From my article today on Salon: "The question I am always asked is, "How could you leave your children?" How could you be the mother who walks away? As if my children were embedded inside me, even years after birth, and had to be surgically removed? As if I abandoned...
Truth Telling
From an interview on Cara Hoffman's blog: "When I went to Japan, I was looking for the textural details of the atomic bomb experience for a novel. Three months into my visit, September 11th happened, and the testimonies changed. The atomic bomb survivors were shaken...
National Book Critics Circle Award Events
A panel discussion and a reading before the awards ceremony. Here are the details. All open to the public. NBCC Finalists in Conversation at The Graduate Center March 08, 2011 7:00 pm Elebash Recital Hall, The Graduate Center, CUNY Fifth Avenue between 34th and 35th...
From Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors
The NBCC is posting a review of each nominated book for this year's awards. It is a great way to get a sense of them all, and decide which ones you are going to buy and read. Today's entry: "The many avenues of Hiroshima in the Morning--explorations of history, of...
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
Awe and gratitude. And a few tears. That is my response to the news that Hiroshima in the Morning was nominated as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The selection committee chose a shortlist of books that give me great hope, not just for books and...
Names
When you lose someone, her name is lost too - lost as in floating, with no one to land on, curl up against, declare. Her name is a slip, which you can't reel back in even if you want to. A ghost in the room. An orphan.
Interview in the Examiner
From an interview with Justin Tedaldi: "The most unbearable stories were often about children. Children who died; children who tried to save their brothers or parents; children who cremated their parents, at age six, because that was what their parents would have...
Goodbye
My mother, Shirley Anne Rizzuto April 5, 1942 – November 16, 2010 Memorial service on Sunday, November 28, 2010 Service at 1:30 pm, visitation at 12:30 pm. Davies Memorial Chapel Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Waimea, HI Aloha attire
Stories
A story about stories on My Friend Amy's blog: "For the first time in a while, I was listening to a survivor’s story. As the Hiroshima survivors did, this man picked his details and told the story that made sense to him. There were things he held onto, like the...
Going to Hawaii
For anyone planning to attending the Author Lunch Talk at the Asia Society, I need to reschedule it and make a trip to Hawaii. I am sorry for any inconvenience, and very grateful to the Asia Society for making this possible, and for welcoming me back later.