To Tell a Story Is to Tell It Again, to Carry Another Time
Regret, I was once told, means to weep again. My first thought, when I heard this: That’s what it is to tell a story.
No-No BoynoWill you renounce Japanese citizenship?Will you fight for America?yes yes
noyes-yes
is
after
speak
Regretto weep againThat’s what it is to tell a story.
alone
No-No Boy no
shared
had
yes-yes no-no
Unbearable Splendor
Unbearable Splendor
againagain
togetherA Tale for the Time Being
Matthew Salesses is the author of The Sense of Wonder, national bestseller Craft in the Real World, the 2021 finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear, and two other novels. Adopted from Korea, he has written about adoption, race, and Asian American masculinity in The Best American Essays 2020, NPR’s Code Switch, the New York Times blog Motherlode, and The Guardian, among other media outlets. BuzzFeed has named him one of 32 Essential Asian American Writers. He lives in New York City, where he is an Assistant Professor of Writing at Columbia University.
Enter your email address to receive notifications for author Matthew Salesses
Success!
Confirmation link sent to your email to add you to notification list for author Matthew Salesses
More by this author
On Worldbuilding and the Question of Resistance
In fiction, you can feel good about resistance without actually resisting anything.
Fate and Desire in Asian America
The satisfaction people take in free will comes not from their ability to choose, but from their ability to feel like they’ve chosen.
What Does It Mean to Write Asian American Literature?
In my family, race itself did not exist. If I wanted to be real, I could not experience what was not real.
More in this series
Dangerous Desire: On ‘Killing Eve’ and Finding Space for Queerness in a Straight-Passing Relationship
I recognize myself in Eve’s character because I don’t think Villanelle is just a woman she’s attracted to. Villanelle represents Eve’s queerness in general.
How Meditation Helped Me Feel More Comfortable in My Body
How sad that I couldn’t regard myself with more kindness before, but how necessary it felt now that I was in constant pain.
The Occult, Fear, and Crises of Faith in ‘The Witch’
According to ‘The Witch,’ there’s no surer way to invite evil in than by being reckless enough to try to play God.