Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Nancy Au is a genderqueer, bisexual artist and teacher living in Oakland, California. She graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in anthropology, and has an MFA from San Francisco State University where she teaches creative writing, and is also currently an instructor at California State University Stanislaus where, in the summers, she teach creative writing.
Nancy Au's website
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CARSON BEKER: In this collection, you give voice to Baboochka Survivor of Wars, to Lai and her duck Louise, to toothless sexy mountain witch Bea, to people who travel in dreams, to parents who survived wars and their child who just wants to get away, to Sophie in her elephant costume, to powerful fisherwomen, to spiders and grandmothers and storytellers, to the very last dragon in the world, and to so many on the verge of becoming. You listen to them all and hear them, the same way that as a friend, you've listened to me. You lay out their grief and wonder and uncertainties and strengths in a way that I can say, yes, I know what that is, that sadness, that invisibility—and then you give them wings, you give them voice, you give them roars. You give them their voice back through listening and telling stories, the same way you've so often given my voice back to me... You write, "If you do not know how to swim, you trust that the deep waters will hold you." This book made me feel held that way, in the dark waters between becoming and belonging. How did you know to begin listening?
NANCY AU: I began listening at a young age because I grew up in a large family and struggled with finding my voice in times of need (and still do)....
Sindya Bhanoo's fiction has appeared in Granta, New England Review, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of an O. Henry Award, the Disquiet Literary Prize and scholarships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee writers... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Spider Love Song and Other Stories
Try:
Seeking Fortune Elsewhere
by Sindya Bhanoo
Jamel Brinkley is the author of Witness: Stories, published in August 2023 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (US)/4th Estate (UK), and A Lucky Man: Stories (2018, Graywolf Press), which was a finalist for the National Book Award... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Spider Love Song and Other Stories
Try:
A Lucky Man
by Jamel Brinkley
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