Monday, July 29, 2013

Author Interview and Novel Excerpt: "Of Bones and Lust"





(WIPs Journal interviews Khanh Ha on his Novel-in-Progress Once in a Lullaby. Read the novel's excerpt Of Bones and Lust.)

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Softly Come Her Steps



"When the trail had led them far into the hamlet, at times winding around thick bamboo trunks the size of a man’s leg, at times skirting bamboo hedges hollowed at the base with openings so that peering through them they saw the dwellers, they stopped at what they saw.

Lepers had come out in front of their huts, as if they had watched the trail for visitors. They materialized from behind the giant bamboo trunks, emerging through man-sized holes in the hedges. Limbless dwarfs, hideous deformed humans. Some limped, some crawled, some were pushed sitting on little box carts, some, blind, were led by the hand."


Friday, July 12, 2013

Of Dust and Butterfly



"At Wolcott’s elbow was Vinh―my uncle―then Faye, his Vietnamese wife. Uncle Vinh was
Wolcott’s deputy assistant secretary. Uncle wore a black bow tie and a white shirt with a
black suit. He didn’t wear a vest. I had never seen him wear one. His arm was around Faye’s
waist. I wanted to close my eyes and imagine it was my arm looped around her torso. I
found myself mentally tracing the curve of her bare shoulders, so stunningly white in her long, black velvet dress. She brought her hand up to touch her off-shoulder satin bow, and her smile melted my heart."