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Angie Sijun Lou is a Kundiman Fellow and a Ph.D. candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her essays and criticism have appeared in the American Poetry Review, the Georgia Review, and Amerasia Journal. She lives in Oakland. Karen Tei Yamashita is the author of eight books (including I Hotel, finalist for the National Book Award, and most recently Sansei and Sensibility), all published by Coffee House Press. Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and a United States Artists' Ford Foundation Fellowship, she is professor emerita of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Praise for Dark Soil “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
