“Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata challenges society’s insistence upon normalcy. The novel follows Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old convenience store worker, who struggles to conform to the vocational expectations of her family, friends, and modern Japanese society. Written from the first-person perspective, the book prompts readers to reevaluate…
March is Women’s History Month, and one of the easiest ways to honor the tradition is to eat out. This is especially true in Los Angeles, where thousands of small businesses cover a plethora of cultures and customs. If you need a little help this March, here’s a…
There’s a stark contrast between the green mountainsides, the red and yellow flag, and the white fog that hides the distance from our eyes. I’m in Hà Giang, a city in northern Vietnam, sipping a salted coffee after our hour-long motorcycle ride to the viewpoint. It’s only the…
“Where the Sky Meets the Sea” interprets the unique experience of growing up mixed heritage. I am half-Chinese, half-Korean, and though imaginative, I hope many others like myself are able to resonate with this piece — from the envy of belonging to a single culture, to the acceptance, the pride, and the beauty of acknowledging both.
How are you doing today, Marigold? my therapist asks me. She looks comfortable, sprawled against her spinning leather armchair the way a man would sit. Maybe she seats herself like a man because she knows she has the upper hand against me, every appointment an unconscious match-up: her…
it’s easy to be envious of silkworms they never live half-starved gluttoned from birth on mulberry and chlorophyll potential turning swollen graced with tenderness for existing their distended forms gorgeous or maybe it is their becoming that is gorgeous the worm is only cocooning what has been engineered…