Carolyn Gan is a writer and producer who has produced events with authors and cultural figures for the Watermark Conference for Women, the New York Public Library, the Rubin Museum of Art, San Francisco’s City Arts & Lectures, and 826LA, among other organizations. She managed the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. She studied creative writing at the University of California, San Diego, with Quincy Troupe, Fanny Howe, and Eileen Myles, and her poetry and short fiction have appeared in various publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
From the Archives: Renowned for her stirring and insightful stories about Haitian life, Edwidge Danticat recently turned her eye to genre as the editor of Haiti Noir, part of Akashic Books’ noir series. The book was published in December, following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Danticat discusses the disaster’s impact on the book and the way that noir captures some of the mystery, darkness and complexity of her homeland.
Carolyn Gan talks with Vanessa Hua about her debut novel, the importance of community, and the impact of becoming a parent on her writing.
“Family, loyalty, love, lust: Vanessa Hua does justice to the big themes in this noteworthy debut.”
Shortlisted for the Booker, Tan’s novel pits Japanese atrocities in Malaya against an enduring love of their gardens.
Yesterday, I saw a woman wearing a garment that straddled the line between shorts and panties. Her outfit was revealing, and it made me ask questions like, “how far will fashion go?” and “what was she thinking?” Perhaps author Steven Millhauser had a similar experience at some point, and that led him to write “A Change of Fashion,” a short story that originally appeared in Harper’s Magazine, May 2006. What would happen if next season’s fashions did not favor a slightly shorter hemline or a higher heel, but hiddenness? What if dresses took on shapes larger than Victorian hoop skirts […]
Our latest Journal of the Week, Lapham’s Quarterly, is a true curator of culture. By juxtaposing the old and the new, Carolyn Gan says in this profile, it’s the “literary equivalent of a really good mix tape, where obscure songs of various styles come together to tell you something more about the music.”
Reed, published at San Jose State University, is proud to reinvent itself regularly–that’s one of the ways it keeps itself current. Learn more about the journal, its history, and its ever-evolving tastes in our latest Journal of the Week feature.
Brooklyn-based Slice, our latest Journal of the Week, features work by new writers next to interviews by legendary authors–and proves you can be a successful literary magazine without kicking the competition.
Sometimes the best things in life come in small packages: Cadbury Creme Eggs, bonsais, the poetry of Kay Ryan. The same is often true of fiction, where in a few thousand words a great short story can convey emotional intensity in a way that a longer piece sometimes cannot.
I recently moved back to Los Angeles after many, many years away. Having left soon after my high school graduation for places beyond, I am pretty much a newcomer to my own hometown. More than once, I’ve thought I was lost only to come across something startlingly familiar: a beloved restaurant, an old friend’s driveway, the cemetery where my grandmother was buried. Lucky for me, one of the first boxes I unpacked included the Spring 2010 issue of Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment. Founded in 1993 at Iowa State University by Stephen Pett, Flyway showcases writing that considers how […]
