RICEPAPER: WHAT SAILOR MOON TAUGHT ME
My essay on Sailor Moon, Cosplay, the Occupy Movement, and various other related topics appeared in the Spring, 2012 issue of Ricepaper, Vancouver’s magazine devoted to Asian Canadian arts and culture.
Many kids have imaginary playmates. Here, in the on-line journal Numero Cinq, is the story of mine.
The on-line journal, the Hamilton Stone Review, in their “West Virginia Issue,” No. 16 (Fall 2008), published this portrait of my grandmother.
In 1997 I received a phone call from a lawyer in California telling me that my father was dead. I was shocked. My parents had separated when I was about a year old, and my mother had refused to talk about my father, and I knew next to nothing about him. I decided to research his his life, and I found out plenty. In the 40s and 50s, he worked as a draftsman at the Hanford nuclear plant in Richland, Washington. He also taught tap dancing and helped to stage musical reviews. Here in Numero Cinq, is my take on the town and my father’s life there.
ONLINE INTERVIEWS
FROM MOTET: READING AND INTERVIEW.
I was interviewed by Erika Thorkelson on Episode 10 (March 19, 2013) of The Canadian Fiction Podcast (a series that is, unfortunately no longer going). I read a scene from Motet and discussed craft, character development, and writer’s block.
In 2006, when the University of British Columbia honoured me with the Dorothy Somerset Award (for the creative arts), they made this video interview. I began by talking about writing and teaching but, somewhat mysteriously, ended up talking about banjos.