500 words from Ray Hecht

500 words from...is a series of guest posts from authors writing about Asia, or published by Asia-based, or Asia-focused, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Here Shenzhen-based American Ray Hecht talks about his new novel South China Morning Blues, published by Blacksmith Books based in Hong Kong. Ray’s earlier books were The Ghost of Lotus Mountain Brothel and Loser Parade. He currently writes for Shenzhen Daily, the only daily English-language newspaper in the south of mainland China.

This week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, announcements, news items, and round ups:

Marrow by Yan Lianke reviewed by Nicholas Gordon
Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back by Janice P Nimura reviewed by John D. Van Fleet
The Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable Allies, and the Crisis of American Power by Jakub J Grygiel and A Wess Mitchell reviewed by Francis P Sempa
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Protest Music After Fukushima by Noriko Manabe reviewed by Nicholas Gordon
Announcement of the inaugural Hong Kong History Book Prize 
Quixotica: Poems East of la Mancha: A call for submissions 

Q & A: Anne Elizabeth Moore

Graphic novels are wildly popular in Asia, but how about comics journalism?  This mingles the techniques of graphic novels with those of investigative journalism.  Chicago-based Anne Elizabeth Moore is one of its leading proponents.  In May, she will publish Threadbare: Clothes, Sex & Trafficking, a collection of reporting, research, and art, exploring, amongst other things, how the darker side of the global fashion industry has roots in Asia.

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Buku Fixi at London Book Fair

The London Book Fair (LBF) takes place next week, April 12 -14. For the first time ever, there will be a Malaysian booth showcasing independent publishers with no government or corporate funding. The country’s biggest independent publisher, the award-winning Buku Fixi, which specialises in contemporary urban fiction in both Malay and English, will be there. Moreover, the company’s English-language imprint, Fixi Novo, is to launch an ambitious new trilogy of anthologies during the Fair.

Just quickly...

This is not exactly literary (!), but you may be interested - my piece for UK Telegraph on expat men doing the dirty with Asian babes... 

This week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, translations, news items, and round ups:

Announcement of the inaugural Hong Kong History Book Prize 
Eight Juxtapositions: China Through Imperfect Analogies from Mark Twain to Manchukuo by Jeffrey Wasserstrom reviewed by Jonathan Chatwin*
A Painter Prince, an excerpt from The Ivory Throne by Manu S Pillai
The Face: Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw reviewed by Peter Gordon

Outside reading: links to recent articles, interviews and commentary

* Jeffrey Wasserstrom's guest post for Asian Books Blog.