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So honored to talk to Tom Wilmer about my writing journey, my three novels, and how I strive to create a more tolerant and hopeful world by writing about my lived experiences. His curiosity, knowledge, and attention to details marvels me. Listen to his award winning show with Tom Wilmer as he takes you from San Luis Obispo to around the world. It will bring you peace and hope during the difficult times ? ?

MY GOOD SON is a Nautilus Gold Award winner and Lambda Literary Awards finalist. May is the AAPI month. I am excited to give five readings at the local libraries and UC Berkeley extension school. Hope to see you in person or on Zoom. Visit for details.

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Hercules Library Author Talk: Yang Huang on My Good Son

Wednesday, May 4, 2022, 6:00 PM ¨C 7:00 PM

Register for Zoom:

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Oakland Library Lakeview Branch: In-person Author Talk

Saturday, May 7, 2022, 12:00 PM ¨C 1:00 PM

550 El Embarcadero, Oakland, CA 94610

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Oakland Library Dimond Branch: In-person Author Talk

Wednesday, May 11, 2022, 6:30 PM ¨C 7:30 PM

3565 Fruitvale Ave, Oakland, CA 94602

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Walnut Creek Library: In-person Authors Gala

Saturday, May 14, 2022, 5:30 PM ¨C 8:30 PM

1644 North Broadway, Walnut Creek, CA, 94596

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UC Berkeley Extension: In conversation with Jennifer Cho

Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 12:00 PM ¨C 1:00 PM

Zoom link forthcoming

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San Francisco Public Library: In-Person Bilingual Talk

Saturday, June 25, 2022, 1:00 PM ?¨C 3:00 PM

Latino Room, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102

Welcome to the virtual launch for on 6/9 at 6pm PST! I will be in conversation with a brilliant writer and dear friend . We will raffle off three gifts: a Booksmith gift certificate, a copy of MY GOOD SON, and a copy of EMPIRE OF GLASS. Please join us and enter to win. !

MY GOOD SON is the story about a Chinese father, Mr. Cai, who works as a tailor in Yangzhou, a provincial town. Mr. Cai wants his son Feng to become an engineer, but Feng has failed his college entrance exams four times, and this is his last chance. Meanwhile, a young American man named Jude comes to the tailor shop to have a vest made. Mr. Cai seizes the opportunity to ask Jude to be Feng¡¯s financial sponsor, so that Feng can go to study at an American university. Of course, this plan backfires. Mr. Cai discovers that Jude is a gay man and needs help to come out to his estranged father.

Through writing about a father¡¯s frustration, I learned much about parenting, its deep power and profound burden. For a year we have sheltered in place with our teenagers. Writing this book gives me a rare perspective that I wouldn¡¯t have otherwise, so I was able to accept and appreciate my children, who are young men on their journeys into an uncertain world. I felt this book made me a wiser and less anxious parent.

New York Times Book Review says: "As with her previous books, ¡®Living Treasures¡¯ and ¡®My Old Faithful,¡¯ Huang¡¯s latest explores the generational push-pull of family life in post-Tiananmen China . . . Mr. Cai remains front and center, always compelling, a man doing everything for his boy, the way a good father ¡ª supposedly ¡ª should.¡±

Ms. Magazine says, ¡°A poignant meditation on fathers and sons, American and Chinese cultures and traditions in the face of modernity, Yang Huang¡¯s latest novel is layered, evocative and engaging.¡±

See for more details.

#china #parenting #writing #books #fathers #son #collegeadmissions

Today I am excited to welcome an author I admire, Joan Steinau Lester, whose new memoir LOVING BEFORE LOVING: A Marriage in Black and White will be out on May 18. I will attend her . Join us to celebrate Joan¡¯s extraordinary love story and support our local bookstores! ?

Joan Steinau?Lester?is an award-winning commentator, columnist, and author of critically acclaimed books, including?Mama's Child?and?Black, White, Other. Her writing has appeared in such publications as?USA Today, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, and?Huffington Post.

Joan Steinau Lester's Website -
Joan Steinau Lester's Blog -

If I had a nickel for each time a stranger has told me, ¡°I know my life would be a bestseller!¡± I¡¯d be wealthy. Sometimes they even offer their story, asking me to simply write it down. ¡°My life has been so amazing, the book would write itself.¡±

Well, not really. Books do not write themselves, and the record of lives is not laid out like a script, awaiting only transcription. A memoir, like any other book, is a deliberately created piece of art, using, in this case, one¡¯s life as the clay. But there are endless possibilities for shaping the raw material. What is the theme? The voice? Which events to include, which to highlight, how to connect them all? And why now?

On the morning of December 5, 2013, I stood by my mother, Barb, holding her cool hand while she lay stretched out, unconscious, on a hospital bed in her living room. My sister, her partner, and I kept vigil for twelve days and nights, never leaving her alone. Now her breath rattled loudly. We understood the end was near. Yet the moment Barb suddenly went silent I screamed for my sister, ¡°Come! I think she stopped breathing!¡± and began to shake. Just like that, I had no living parent.

For six months I grieved, so adrift I even informed startled friends, ¡°I may not write anymore.¡± After this profound loss, nothing mattered.

Yet eventually my fingers itched for the smooth feel of computer keys, and for the magical space writing opens in me. Abandoning long-suspended work on a contracted novel, I plunged into memoir. The need to make sense of my life¡ªmine alone, not as anyone¡¯s daughter¨Cskyrocketed, and the freedom, even from a loving parent, to say anything, unshackled me. I felt entirely free to speak my truth.

For three years I wrote, pounding out pages with various titles. Eventually, I sent my draft to an agent who, based on the first chapter, agreed to read it.

She praised the writing but ¡°felt that the overall narrative was somewhat uneven. At times we were so invested and at other parts skimming. NOT because the writing isn¡¯t strong (man it is!) but because there were so many tangents. I think the issue is that you have SO MUCH to say that it must have been hard for you to limit which parts to share. There are like 4 different books here! And while each individual story is lovely, they confuse the flow of the narrative¡­.Is this a book about breaking racial barriers, is this a book about gay marriage, is this a book about education, is this a book about writing?¡±

The agent, fortunately, liked the manuscript enough to retain an editor who supervised revisions as I settled on the coming-of-age-as-writer/activist theme.

It didn¡¯t sell.

One afternoon I called a highly recommended publicist I hoped to engage, thinking she might help me publish a major essay that might attract a publisher.

¡°What¡¯s the memoir about?¡± she asked.

¡°It¡¯s my work in the civil rights movement¡­¡± I began, naively believing that she, as a Black woman, would be riveted.

¡°Yawn,¡± she said.

¡°And my marriage to a Black man in the early 60s, our children¡­¡± I continued.

¡°Now that¡¯s a subject I¡¯d be interested in. What was it like to be interracially married back then?¡±

¡°Well,¡± I stammered, vowing silently, Never! My ex-husband had become famous during our eight-year marriage, when his first book¡ªwhich I edited¡ªshot into the stratosphere, garnering glowing New York Times reviews. While I, an aspiring writer, stayed mired in diapers and dishes.

When my wife of forty years heard the publicist¡¯s response, she enthused, ¡°That¡¯s a great idea. It¡¯s a framework to hang your story on. You can still talk about becoming a writer. After all, he was your first mentor, and it gives you a personal vehicle to talk about race. All your anti-racism work.¡±

¡°No.¡± I shook my head. ¡°Julius Lester got so much attention. I am not going to focus the story of my life on him.¡±

¡°The publicist is a good barometer, Joan. And that relationship was foundational. Your writing, your children, your doctorate. Your profession. Marrying him set the entire trajectory of your life.¡±

A few days later I warily approached the manuscript. First I stripped away the first five chapters, over which I¡¯d labored for years. Now page one showed me meeting Julius and our embarrassing first exchange, an explosive racially-tinged misunderstanding. I expanded his character and used that relationship as a theme right to the final pages of the book, showing how it deepened in the decades following our divorce, right up to his warm condolences after my mother died.

The first publisher my agent sent this version to bought it, and I realized that this long-ago marriage had to be my theme. As I revised I worked on forgiveness¡ªof Julius, and myself, for the ways we failed each other¡ªand ended up feeling closer to him, grateful for our coupling, despite the pain. My wife was right: that first marriage to a gifted writer, a Black man at a time when our union was still illegal in twenty-seven states, indeed set my life course.

I didn¡¯t know when I started this memoir which story I would tell¡ªwhich is why strangers proffering stories of their ¡°amazing lives¡± can¡¯t provide the effortless books they believe in. But I was fortunate to eventually find my theme, one hiding in plain sight all along. Once I cut away extraneous material its perfection grew clear, like the elegant lines that emerge after pruning a tree. And as suddenly as my mother took her last breath, one morning while I lay quietly in bed a perfect title popped into my mind, confirming the rightness of my choice.

The writing process is indeed a magical one, and I am grateful to have gone through it enough times that I allowed myself the many revisions it took to find my way, confident the right story would someday emerge.

Committed to the struggle for civil rights, in the late 1950s Joan Steinau marched and protested as a white ally and young woman coming to terms with her own racism. She fell in love and married a fellow activist, the Black writer Julius Lester, establishing a partnership that was long and multifaceted but not free of the politics of race and gender. As the women¡¯s movement dawned, feminism helped Lester find her voice, her pansexuality, and the courage to be herself.

Braiding intellectual, personal, and political history, Lester tells the story of a writer and activist fighting for love and justice before, during, and after the Supreme Court¡¯s 1967 decision striking down bans on interracial marriage in?Loving v. Virginia. She describes her own shifts in consciousness, from an activist climbing police barricades by day and reading and writing late into the night to a woman navigating the coming-out process in midlife, before finding the publishing success she had dreamed of. Speaking candidly about every facet of her life, Lester illuminates her journey to fulfillment and healing.

I¡¯m happy to offer a ¡°10 signed ARCs¡± giveaway for MY GOOD SON, from University of New Orleans Press, pub date: 5/27/2021. To enter: . Giveaway closes on Tuesday April 27.

And a #StandUpforAAPI GIVEAWAY:

I¡¯m late to join the efforts of AAPI authors to tell our stories and battle against hate crimes. One way that we are working together is by supporting and sharing giveaways by AAPI creators, to boost and amplify our voices so we can be heard. Other ways to support the AAPI community include: talking to your family and friends about the events last month, learning bystander intervention, donating to AAPI and human rights organizations, supporting AAPI businesses, writing your political leaders.

For this giveaway, I¡¯ll be choosing 5 winners for 5 signed copies of MY OLD FAITHFUL or LIVING TREASURES.

To enter:

1) like this post

2) tell me a book by an Asian or Asian diaspora author you¡¯ve read recently or would like to read.

3) tag a friend

Giveaway closes on Friday, April 30. US only. Thank you for your support!

#StandUpforAAPI #diversifyyourshelf #bookishgiveaway #bookgiveaway #bookgiveaways #diversespines #diversebooks #diversereads #giveaway #StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate

Writing is a solitary journey, until the book is published. It is at once terrifying and exciting to meet the readers. Being interviewed is a true privilege. I especially treasured these interchanges when the interviewer discovered something I didn¡¯t know about my stories and characters. For this reason I listed these interviews to be my favorite. I will add to this list!

is an accomplished fiction author and East Asian studies scholar. In this interview, she asked me about the role family plays within wider sociocultural forces. My fictional family live during a time of momentous changes in China and the U.S. I had to reverse engineer the stories to piece together the world and social mores: some of it (materialism) became reality, while others (feminism) are still a work-in-progress. Most importantly, there are dreams (democracy) deferred. ??

is an insightful and generous reader. She asked me whether the elder sister in ¡°Dream Lover¡± might have an affair if Xu tried. I hadn¡¯t thought about this scenario until she mentioned it. So Xu does an honorable deed by rejecting her, although he looks down on her as being undesirable, even as a mistress. The double standard can work in the woman¡¯s favor and keeps her from making a big mistake!

I have learned much from Scott Kent Jones¡¯s podcast , which helps me make sense of the current volatile political climate. When it was my turn, I had an ¡°unbridled¡± discussion with my host and forwent my motto ¡°Don¡¯t air dirty linen in public¡± about the Chinese people and culture. I usually don¡¯t tell the whole truth about people¡¯s shortcomings and instead satirize it in fiction. I surprised myself in that interview, which was truly ¡°Give and Take.¡± Have a listen.

is a wonderful podcast featuring a diverse group of writers. Hosts Daniel Ford and Sean Tuohy are writers and staunch supporters of their peers. Daniel called me ¡°an old soul,¡± which is a high compliment. I answered with my mission statement and vision, because seriously, few people would have cared. Readers want the words on the page. In a way the author¡¯s intention doesn¡¯t matter. Still, that is the reason those words are on the page. Thank you, Daniel, for letting me say it!

Lastly, my TV interview with Jiayu Jeng at . Okay, I spent more time getting dolled up. Jiayu is a beautiful, caring, and witty journalist. I translated my English interviews into Mandarin and practiced speaking them fluently. I also worried about my mother hearing me say things she doesn¡¯t like. But when it aired, I realized I spoke appropriately. This proves that my internal censorship is alive and well, despite that I have lived in the U.S. for 28 years, much longer than I had lived in China. So I have to write in English to lose the bondage of censorship.

This blog is an ode to the literary community that supports writers in their lonely endeavor. Thank you, everyone, for reading, empathizing, and challenging the writers!

I wrote an essay ¡°¡± several years ago. At the time I gave all my reasons, with an old family photo. Since then, my grandma passed away at the age of 93.

I was four years old, and my brother was three. The back row from left to right: my auntie, my parents, my younger uncle, my older uncle and his newlywed wife.
My grandparents sat in the front row. My brother wanted to run away, so my grandma put him on her lap and held his hand. I was the good girl, furtively playing with my coat and exploring my pocket.?

I realize there is more to that narrative. I was born in Jiangsu province with ancestral roots at a seaside village in Zhejiang province. My name was recorded in the Huang family tree book. Ironically, my children and spouse aren¡¯t recorded, because I am a woman. My children don¡¯t bear my last name, so I am no longer part of the Huang family, despite that I kept my maiden name.

2005

2018

Here is my family: the first photo of our family of four alongside the latest. My elder son was pegged to be an engineer at the age of three. As a baby he loved to play with toy trucks, trains, and grew up playing baseball and soccer. Unlike me, he¡¯s a good athlete. I rarely saw him do homework until the 5th grade. Now in the 9th grade, he¡¯s bound to the books, laptop, and even has a new ambition: studying to become a lawyer.

Call it the teenage whim. We were puzzled. Both my husband and I are computer engineers. We can help him, if he wants to become an engineer. But no, he has to choose a profession that we know nothing.

This reminds me of someone I know: his mother! Two decades ago I decided to write in English, an impulsive decision that bewildered my parents and friends: What? Why?!

I gave my reasons in , but that¡¯s only the logical answer. There is also an emotional side of the story. I have to begin with my ancestors. The couple who started the family tree were originally from Fujian province. The woman was the young daughter in a wealthy family. The man was a hired hand working for her father. She fell in love with the tall, handsome, and penniless young man. Her parents disapproved of him, so they eloped to Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, and settled at the secluded seaside village surrounded by green mountains. Her family set out to look for her (only a wealthy family could afford to conduct an extensive search) but failed to find them, who were determined to elude her family. I have often wondered: did the brave woman miss her parents? Did she reach for her mother¡¯s hand when she cried out with birth pang?

For more stories see my Chinese blog

Now the Huang clan has more than 2000 families, and the family tree is a thick book. My mother, whose last name is Zhang, is included, because her children¡¯s last name is Huang. My Berkeley-born children are not in the book. No matter, all of us descended from the hot-blooded ancestors who ventured out for a new life, their hearts brimming over with love and hope.

That is why I write in English.

I was star struck by many authors who have spoken during The Story Hour over the years: Maxine Hong Kingston, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Chabon, ZZ Packer, just to name a few. When it was my turn, I was excited and apprehensive. Little did I know I would wind up on the cover of The Story Hour. Thank you, Vikram, Melanie, and readers, for supporting a debut author.?

Here I was a bit starry-eyed in this sacred room.

Vikram Chandra, one of my favorite authors and brilliant mentors, inspired me with his exhortations:

Gu Bao must make irrevocable choices about motherhood, negotiate the treacherous waters of politics, and struggle against the official corruption and brutality. The novel is emotionally vivid and intensely personal, and yet it involves us in an epic moment of cultural and political change . . . It signals the beginning of an exciting career. I look forward to reading Yang¡¯s next book and the book after that, which I hope she started working on.?

Thank you, Vikram! I¡¯m working hard on my new novels.

I am sad to learn this year marks the last season of The Story Hour. For a decade it has brought us inspiration and touched us with the magic of storytelling. Huddling around an author in front of the fireplace assures us time and again that we are in good company. There is a vibrant community not only for writers but also for all story lovers.?

So profoundly grateful to Vikram Chandra and Melanie Abrams for the generous gift of The Story Hour. We look forward to their new books and reading series from UC Berkeley.

At first glance, Living Now Book Awards has a formidable goal:

We¡¯ve all heard the expressions, ¡°This book changed my life!¡± and ¡°Changing the world, one book at a time.¡± The Living Now Book Awards are designed to honor those kinds of life-changing books.

Yet the goal is relevant and even fundamental:

We all seek healthier, more fulfilling lives for ourselves and for the planet. . . . The purpose of the Living Now Book Awards is to celebrate the innovation and creativity of books that enhance the quality of life.

I submitted my novel Living Treasures to the Inspirational Fiction category. Can fiction be inspirational and remain honest? I want to believe so. I work as a computer engineer at UC Berkeley. When I help people on a daily basis, I know that a person can make a difference in the society.

As a writer I have a rather optimistic worldview. I like to tackle big social problems in my fiction, put my characters under the test, let them endure, and in their darkest and most despairing hours, let them use their ingenuity¡ªmuch like an engineer¡ªand find some sort of relief or solution, not a cure-all, but a way out, so that they can move forward to rebuild their lives.?

Many social problems don¡¯t have solutions. That doesn¡¯t mean we need to remain stagnant. The perilous quest for a fulfilling life is in itself a profound spiritual journey. Accompanied by good books, we don¡¯t travel alone on our personal journeys. ¡°Good books are a weapon against ignorance,¡± Jim Barnes said.

I entered the contest with deep appreciation for which the award stands. I am grateful to have won the bronze medal along with .

May we remember the reason why we write, whom we write for, and strive to change the world, one book at a time.

My book trailer for tells a striking story. But it is?censored on all the social media sites in mainland China: Youku, Tudou, and Sina. It is an officially banned book trailer. Have a look, you may see why the gentle story raises fears on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square massacre.?

Several readers shared with me their poems about the Tiananmen Square massacre. Here?is an eloquent protest?by a wonderful poet?Jane Shlensky. She was a teacher?in China during the student movement.?

Tian¡¯an¡¯men 1989

the Square is
a Great Wall
a ship breaking waves
victims¡¯ bodies in drawers
mourned as martyrs
the Goddess
beacon of hope toppled
as Mao at the Gate
stares

a moth heaved dusty wings
to bang against light

loud music
flame¡¯s yellow glare
wings secured
with wooden clips
outcries replaced with
silence, memory shifting
into surrender
the wound sprouting
new leaves

(erasure of by Yang Huang)

Her poem brings?back a tide?of emotions: crushed hope, despair, and isolation after losing a historical opportunity 26 years ago.??

My novel??didn¡¯t criticize the Chinese government. Instead I took a more radical political stand by disregarding the impact of their brutal suppression. We can and should move on from the tragedy, by not giving up, by not giving in, by becoming free despite the government¡¯s suppression and censorship. There is a new life after death, for Bao personally, and for grassroots activists who believe in the future.

In the old days, a?daring?rebellious?convict said?on his way to the scaffold for decapitation: "I will be a brave man again in 18 years!" He meant:?I am a heroic outlaw right now, and I will be a heroic outlaw again in 18 years after my reincarnation.?So 26 years later, the heroes and victims fallen on June 4, 1989 have risen again?and joined us to walk toward a better future.