The Art and Craft of Asian Stories - A Writer's Guide and Anthology

An all-in-one craft guide and anthology, this is the first creative writing book to find inspiration and guidance in the diverse literary traditions of Asia. Including exemplary stories by leading writers from Japan, China, India, Singapore and beyond as well as those from Asian diasporas in Europe and America, The Art and Craft of Asian Stories offers an exciting take on the traditional how-to writing guide by drawing from a rich new trove of short stories beyond the western canon which readers may never have encountered before. Whilst still taking stock of the traditional elements of story such as character, viewpoint and setting, Xu and Hemley let these compelling stories speak for themselves to offer readers new ideas and approaches which could enrich their own creative work. Structured around the themes encountered in the stories, such as race and identity, history and power, family and aspirations, this text is a vital companion for writers at all levels keen to develop and find new perspectives on key elements of their craft.

Written by two internationally successful writers and teachers, each chapter contains complete short stories and writing exercises for practice and inspiration.

List of contents

Credits and Permissions

Introduction

Chapter One: Family Matters
1. "The Brothers" Lysley Tenorio (USA)
2. "My Mother Pattu" Saras Manickam (Malaysia)

Chapter Two: Attraction
1. "Convince Me" Jiang Yitan (China) translated from Chinese (Mandarin) by Philip Hand
2. "No Toes" Michael Mohammed Ahmad (Australia)

Chapter Three: Routines
1. "We That Summer" Han Yujoo (Korea) translated from Korean by Janet Hong
2. "Birds" by Deepak Unnikrishnan (UAE)

Chapter Four: Little Fish
1. "A Clerk's Story" Dilip Kumar (India) translated from Tamil by Padma Narayanan
2. "National Day" Jeremy Tiang (Singapore)
3. "An Errand" Angelo Lacuesta, (Philippines)

Chapter Five: Shedding Skins
1. "All About Skin" Xu Xi (USA)
2. "Dragon Menu" Zhang Xinxin (China) translated from Chinese (Mandarin) by Helen Wang

Chapter Six: Invaders
1. "Farangs" Rattawut Lapcharoensap (USA)
2. "Boondocks" Robin Hemley (USA)

Chapter Seven: Diasporas
1. "The Boat" Nam Le (Australia)
2. "Dreams in English" Noelle Q. de Jesus (Philippines)

Chapter Eight: Mysteries
1. "The Door," Dorothy Tse (Hong Kong) translated from Chinese (Cantonese) by Natascha Bruce
2. "Where did I Lose You?" Fan Xiaoqing (China) translated from Chinese (Mandarin) by Paul Harris

Chapter Nine: Taboos
1. "The Quilt," Ismat Chughtai (India) translated from Urdu by Gopika Jadeja
2. "Video" Meera Nair (USA)
3. "Prayer in Training" Ploi Pirapokin (USA)

Chapter Ten: Histories
1. "Bee Honey" Yoshimoto Banana (Japan) translated from Japanese by Michael Emmerich
2. "Lee Kuan Yew is not Always the Answer" Inez Tan, (Singapore)

Chapter Eleven: Future Tense
1. "Pink" Hoshino Tomoyuki (Japan) translated from Japanese by Brian Bergstrom
2. "Learning Curve" Yeung Chak Yan (Hong Kong)

Index

About the author

Robin Hemley is Director of the George Polk School of Communications as well as Parsons Family Chair in Creative Writing, University Professor and Co-Chair of the MFA in Writing at LIU-Brooklyn, USA. He is also Professor Emeritus at The University of Iowa, USA, and a graduate of The Iowa Writers' Workshop where The Digital Storytelling Lab was recently dedicated in his honor. He is the award-winning author of 16 books of fiction and nonfiction, including most recently the autofiction, Oblivion, An After-Autobiography (2022), The Art and Craft of Asian Stories: A Writer's Guide and Anthology, co-authored with Xu Xi (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood (2020, Penguin SE Asia, 2021). His new collection of essays is How to Change History: A Salvage Project (2025). His work has been published and translated widely and he has received such awards as a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, three Pushcart Prizes in both nonfiction and fiction, The Nelson Algren Award for Fiction, The Independent Press Book Award for Memoir, among others. He is the Founder of the international nonfiction conference, NonfictioNOW and was the director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at The University of Iowa for nine years, inaugural director of The Writers' Centre at Yale-NUS, Singapore, and is a graduate of The Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is co-editor with Leila Philip of Speculative Nonfiction.

Summary

An all-in-one craft guide and anthology, this is the first creative writing book to find inspiration and guidance in the diverse literary traditions of Asia. Including exemplary stories by leading writers from Japan, China, India, Singapore and beyond as well as those from Asian diasporas in Europe and America, The Art and Craft of Asian Stories offers an exciting take on the traditional how-to writing guide by drawing from a rich new trove of short stories beyond the western canon which readers may never have encountered before. Whilst still taking stock of the traditional elements of story such as character, viewpoint and setting, Xu and Hemley let these compelling stories speak for themselves to offer readers new ideas and approaches which could enrich their own creative work. Structured around the themes encountered in the stories, such as race and identity, history and power, family and aspirations, this text is a vital companion for writers at all levels keen to develop and find new perspectives on key elements of their craft.

Written by two internationally successful writers and teachers, each chapter contains complete short stories and writing exercises for practice and inspiration.

Additional text

Everyone knows that the domination of Western storytelling is a problem, but what to do about it? The Art and Craft of Asian Stories offers practical and thought-provoking advice. And you don't have to be an Asian storyteller, by the way, to be enriched and inspired by these pages.

Product details

• Authors: Professor Robin (Long Island University Hemley, Robin Hemley, Xu Xi, Xu (Vermont College of Fine Arts Xi, Xi Xu
• Assisted by: Joe Wilkins (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2021
• EAN: 9781350076549
• ISBN: 978-1-350-07654-9
• No. of pages: 280
• Dimensions: 168 mm x 242 mm x 18 mm
• Series: Bloomsbury Writers' Guides and; Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies
• Subjects: Guides > Law, job, finance > Training, job, career; Non-fiction book > Art, literature > Literature: general, reference works; Creative writing & creative writing guides, Creative writing and creative writing guides, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Writing / General