Dark Soil
Karen Tei Yamashita author Angie Sijun Lou editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Coffee House Press
Published:20th Jun '24
£18.99
This title is due to be published on 20th June, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
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Eight authors’ works of personal nonfiction join with ten stories by Karen Tei Yamashita to illuminate the hidden histories of places large and small.
Faced with a scant historical record, Karen Tei Yamashita turns to fiction to animate the secrets of Santa Cruz, the city she’s called home for nearly three decades. Her characters come alive through her signature witty humor and surreal premises, transcending the past and urging themselves into the present to illuminate a hidden geography of this California coastal city unseen in textbooks.
Alongside these stories, eight nonfiction writers chart their own counternarratives of place through the greater United States. Diverging and converging in their scale and scope, from an unnamed lot on the bank of the Ohio River to the territory of Guam, their essays use language as an instrument of excavation, uncovering layers of hurt and desire concealed in the land.
Praise for Dark Soil
“A centrifugal, suggestive way of looking at place through the lens of story.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A stunning anthology uses the strength of story, both fiction and nonfiction, to address missing histories and revive the narratives that have too often been omitted.” —Shelf Awareness
“Editor Angie Sijun Lou presents an innovative, provocative anthology. Fiction and mythographies (mythos + geography) engender piercing truths.” —Terry Hong, Booklist
“Countering the relentless tendency of capitalist modernity, the exquisite geography of these chapters annihilates time by space. I can’t stop thinking about José Saramago, especially Raised from the Ground. Dark Soil’s multiple, stubborn narrators creatively mix humor and surprise with the extraordinary brutalities of ordinary violence. The book sings of planetary consciousness, refusing partitions and enclosures by remembering life in excess of such deadliness.” —Ruth Wilson Gilmore
“Karen Tei Yamashita and the essayists of Dark Soil have brought to life figures who have been passed over in history and literature. This book is like burning thousands of incense sticks in their honor. Dark Soil is a must read.” —George Ow Jr.
Past Praise for Karen Tei Yamashita:
Praise for I Hotel
2010 National Book Award Finalist
2011 American Book Award Winner
2010 California Book Award Winner
2011 Asian American Literary Award Fiction Finalist
2011 Asian American Literary Award Members’ Choice Winner
2011 Asian/Pacific American Library Association (APALA) Book Award Winner in Adult Fiction
“Stunningly complete. . . . Yamashita accomplishes a dynamic feat of mimesis by throwing together achingly personal stories of lovers, old men, and orphaned children; able synopses of historical events and social upheaval . . . This powerful, deeply felt, and impeccably researched fiction is irresistibly evocative.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Exuberant, irreverent, passionately researched . . . Yamashita’s colossal novel of the dawn of Asian American culture is the literary equivalent of an intricate and vibrant street mural depicting a clamorous and righteous era of protest and creativity.” —Booklist, starred review
Praise for Sansei and Sensibility
Longlisted for the 2020 Believer Book Award in Fiction
Kirkus, Best Fiction of 2020
Poets & Writers, New and Noteworthy Books
Esquire, Best Books of Spring 2020
Literary Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2020
“The range of characters, sparkling humor, connective themes, and creative ambition all showcase Yamashita’s impressive powers.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An elegantly written, wryly affectionate mashup of Jane Austen and the Japanese immigrant experience. . . . Yamashita’s reimagining of Austen is sympathetic and funny—and as on target as the movie Clueless.” —Kirkus, starred review
Praise for Karen Tei Yamashita
Winner of the 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters
ISBN: 9781566896870
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages