Interviews

In Catherine Chung's "The Tenth Muse," one woman seeks roots in family and math, The Blend
"I do think that as the child of immigrants, you can often feel like part of your history is lost to you because it’s not embedded in the history of the country you live in. I think I felt less grounded putting down roots in a place where my roots were new, you know?"

Interview with a Nikkei forager: Mushroom hunting with Sayuri Shinya, Discover Nikkei
“At first, I thought it was weird. I was like, mushrooms, really? But the kinds we pick, they're not like button mushrooms; they're not something you can grow. That's what makes it so much more difficult and more expensive and just worth it.”

Arounna Khounnoraj talks making crafts in an immigrant family, and the importance of loving process, The Blend
"Back then, my parents made things because we were poor. I think that that influenced how I thought and how I did things. Because now, with my own children, they see that it’s more meaningful to make something, because it’s a part of who you are."

In "Good Talk," author Mira Jacob shows the complex reality of mixed-race family, The Blend
"I just sort of felt like, what am I doing here? Why am I always trying to find a perfect way to tell this story? As though by perfecting that story I’m going to reach these people that have something against me. What if I just allow myself to say the thing I know? And what if my audience is us, and not them?"

Author Andrea Tsurumi on kindness and the role of uncertainty in art and cultural identity, Discover Nikkei
"There's also code-switching that happens...you're always kind of figuring out what your own priorities are and what's meaningful to you and what actually matters, which I think is good because uncertainty makes you ask questions all the time."

Alex Wagner's epic mixed-race memoir "Futureface" makes the case for interrogating our family histories, The Blend
"I think there is something about putting foot to ground and touching the land that can give people that sense of connection, but for me, generally speaking, it wasn't like I landed in Rangoon and thought, 'I'm finally here.'"

Keiko Agena on Life After 'Gilmore Girls,' Her New Book and How She Copes with Anxiety, The Lily / The Washington Post
"Part of the nervousness was, I didn’t know how to live without the show, so when the show was gone, I didn’t have confidence that I would be able to do the working actress side of it."

For Jen Hewett, Becoming a Successful Artist of Color Meant Letting Go of Perfectionism, The Blend
“Coming from a background where you always look your best and you always do your best, it was really hard to make mistakes.”

Julia Whelan, Author of 'My Oxford Year,' Talks Storytelling, Grief, and Lit Snobs, HelloGiggles
"I was expecting to get some pushback from literary readers. I mean, I already have. Somebody reached out to me and said, 'I loved this book, but for your next book, dear god, get out of the romance bin. You're so much better than that.'"

The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook Celebrates the Unusual and Unknown, California Magazine
"Fruit is just so amazing to me. I remember from a young age slicing into an orange and sitting there and studying up close those tiny jewel packets of juice. And I remember being like, ‘This is God.’ How could something this amazing exist naturally? We don’t have to do anything, it just is there. And all these fruits make me feel that way.”

Sarah Kuhn's Superhero Books Are a Beacon for Women of Color Seeking Community, The Blend
People often see romance as “silly or frivolous,” says Kuhn, “and I don’t think it’s really a secret why. Romance is mostly written by women, it centers women’s pleasure, and it centers women as protagonists and creators.”

Director Lena Khan Brings the Immigrant Experience to Life in 'The Tiger Hunter,' Los Angeles Magazine
"I don’t think I ever thought South Asians were cool. If somebody had told me when I was 20, 'Your first movie is going to be a whole bunch of brown people. Not just one, but, like, a whole bunch of them,' I’d be like, 'Yeah, right.' Because when you’re a minority filmmaker—or person—you have to try harder, right? You’re not trying to 'other'-ize yourself even more."

Finding Hemo: Athena Mari Asklipiadis Does Matchmaking That Saves Lives, O, The Oprah Magazine (Print)
"I’m not special or anything. I’ve just been able to spread awareness via social media and word of mouth. There’s no limit to what you can do if you feel strongly enough about a cause—you just have to try."

A Radical Universe of Self-Care, GOOD Magazine
"When you love your own life, I think that gives you a sense of pride and ownership that infuses everything. You're going to want friendships that are really supportive. You want a home that is really this sacred space for you, that really honors and celebrates your particular needs as a person... You want to take care of your own body more."

Graphic Content: Cartoonist MariNaomi Illustrates the Highs and Lows of Friendship, Los Angeles Magazine (Print)
"I used to think you got one, like, ‘Here’s my memoir; this is my life.’ But here I am thinking, ‘God, I haven’t even bitten into the cheese yet.’"

I Was Never Big on Fitting In: The Millions Interviews MariNaomi, The Millions
"There’s really no way to not offend anybody. Someone’s always going to get offended, no matter what. They’re all bringing their own shit to the table. And the artist’s job really is to tell the story that you want to tell with as little confusion as possible."

Writing Children's Books Helped Grace Lin Embrace Being Asian American, NBC Asian America
"When I started writing books, a really wonderful side-effect was that I had all these questions. Like, I never knew why my parents immigrated to the United States. And it was only when I started making the books that I started asking those questions of my parents and hearing stories from their lives in Taiwan when they were children. All these things that we never talked about before. Now they’ll tell me stories because they’re like, ‘Oh, you could use this.’”

Why 'Scott Pilgrim' Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley's Future Protagonists Will Be Mixed-Race, NBC Asian America
"I’ve sometimes joked that Scott Pilgrim is my fantasy of being a cute white indie rock boy (which, as an ostracized mixed-race weirdo, was something I occasionally wished for when I was younger). I guess I whitewashed myself out of my own story, and I got what I deserved.”

The Rumpus Interview with Yumi Sakugawa, The Rumpus
"Diversity is really important to me. Even if I don’t explicitly write about Asian American or Japanese American issues or identity, just having that Asian face has always been important to me. And even if they are monsters, they’re eating spam musubi or using chopsticks."

Nina Revoyr on Writing About Race and the Mountains, The Rafu Shimpo
"People of color have—or I would hope have—a different kind of entry into writing about other people of color. It’s not the same kind of leap, I think, as when a white person is writing about people of color. But one thing I’m very careful to do, in both Southland and Lost Canyon, is that I don’t ever write first-person... It’s always a close third. So that’s kind of like a final leap that I don’t take."

"I have this experience when I interview someone, if it's going well and we're really talking in a serious way, and they're telling me these very personal things, I fall in love a little... They're sharing so much of themselves. If you have half a heart, how can you not?" — Ira Glass