My collection of short stories, Useful Phrases for Immigrants, (from Blair) is the recipient of a 2019 American Book Award!
I am honored that Tayari Jones (An American Marriage, Silver Sparrow) chose my collection for the Bakwin Award for Writing by a Woman:
“The eight stories in this collection contain multitudes. May-lee Chai interrogates heavy subjects with a light touch. She grants each character the gift of a gleaming voice, rendering them as shaped by circumstances, while also transcending them. USEFUL PHRASES FOR IMMIGRANTS is more than merely ‘useful’; this is essential reading, and I’m honored to choose this book for the Bakwin Award.”
Early blurb quotes:
“ A splendid gem of a story collection. With each well-honed story, we are brought into a world that first seems undeniably familiar—parents and their young children trying to forge their own way, lovers with matters unresolved, parents and their grown children saddled with decades of baggage . . . but each story evolves into a place not known and the reader comes away with admired wonder . . . And complementing the vivid characters, the reader has the gift of language—‘a wind so treacherous it had its own name,’ ‘summer days stretched taffy slow.’ Chai’s work is a grand event.” —Edward P. Jones,Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, and Lost in the City
“ With insight, compassion, and clarity, Chai vividly illustrates the reverberations
of migration—both physical and psychological; between countries, cities, and generations;and within families and individuals. You won’t forget these characters.”
—Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers, finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction
“ Useful Phrases for Immigrants holds multitudes, taking us into a dazzling range
of lives. With exquisite prose and unforgettable characters, the collection is a
must-read.” —Vanessa Hua, author of A River of Stars
“ The characters in this riveting collection ask searching questions—of themselves, of their families, and of their culture. The answers, they often find, are within themselves, rooted in love and hope.” Chantel Acevedo, author of A Falling Star, The Distant Marvels, and The Living Infinite.
2018 EVENTS:
- Sept 29, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, Feast of Authors, Tacoma, WA
- October 27, San Francisco Launch 7pm
- Books Inc., Laurel Village, 3515 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
- October 29, North Carolina Launch: In conversation with Elaine Neil Orr (Swimming Between Worlds) 7 pm
- Quail Ridge Books, 4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27609
- October 30, Reading at The Regulator co-sponsored by the Durham Literacy Center, 7pm
- The Regulator, 720 9th St, Durham, NC 27705
- October 31, Writers’ Week, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
- November 1, Reading at Scuppernong Books 7pm
- Scuppernong Books, 304 S Elm St, Greensboro, NC 27401
- November 8, The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University, with Junse Kim
- Humanities Bldg. Room 512
- 7 pm
- 1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA 94132
- November 30, Green Apple Books on the Park, In conversation with Jamel Brinkley
- 7:30 pm
1231 9th Avenue at Lincoln
San Francisco, CA 94122
- 7:30 pm
- December 1, Asian American Craftswomen Fair , 2-3 pm
- Asian Resource Center, 310 8th Street in Oakland Chinatown, Oakland, CA 94607
- (Eastwind Books of Berkeley will dontate 10% of book sales to AIWA: Asian Immigrant Women Advocates)