ISSUE 06 || FALL / WINTER 2009
Editorial
Jennifer
Derilo
Dear Readers,
Issue #6 of Kartika
Review is finally here, and I am proud to present it to you because
not
only am I making my debut as the Creative Nonfiction editor, but this
issue is
simply rife with spectacular CNF pieces. I do not know if it is
coincidence or
if it has anything to do with “6” being my lucky number or with the
general sex
appeal of CNF. (Yeah, I said “sex”; it sells!)
Nevertheless,
I am excited that I am ushering in
serious APA talent that is in line with the caliber of work Kartika has
promoted since its first issue. I know you will enjoy the startling
structure
of York Wong’s “Laps,” a meditation on a father-son relationship that
is at
once vital and traumatic. There are intense, stark images lovingly
wrought by
Katherine Lien Chariott in “Crash” and “Winter 1976,” two flash
narratives that
when read together form a complex portrait of a family dealing with
change,
vulnerability, and death. Then there are the more traditional works of
Lynne
Connor’s “Chosen One,” and Robert Aquino Dollesin’s “Symbiont,” which
quietly
shake you as they tackle separation/reconnection and identity/selfhood
when
retracing and redefining the contours of family. Lastly, J.D. Ho’s
“Years of
the Ox,” is an expansive exploration of her maternal grandfather, a man
you
have never met but will never forget, enmeshed in the geography of
Hawaii.
Of course,
the CNF talent is only the beginning.
Vuong Quoc Vu’s poem, “The Hmong,” is a story of survival and the
preservation
of history that is carried by lush tropes of sea, land, and migration.
“The
Captain” by Wendi M. Lee is an elegy about growing up but also a love
letter to
youth and uncharted dreams. Iris Law’s “Stoichiometry” is a deftly
balanced
musing on avocados, childhood, her father, and numbers, which reads
more like a
gorgeous meta-poem. Lee Minh Sloca introduces us to a speaker who is
playful,
bitter, and sympathetic in “Just[ice] Please,” a visually spare piece
that
starts and stops where you least expect it. In “Pyongyang Phantom
Feeling,
1952,” Mary Chi-Whi Kim drops you into a corporeal and ravaged
landscape,
gripping you as you watch the speaker’s aunt flee it as a young girl.
For fiction,
we have selected Alka Khushalani’s
“This Side of the World,” and Cedric Yamanaka’s “What I Have to Tell
You,”
which both touch on similar themes of family, abandonment, and love. In
“This
Side of the World,” our narrator Almona, a successful career woman and
recent
divorcee, takes a chance on a tryst with a younger man who works under
her and
leads her to an undisclosed location that becomes more and more
suspicious as
we travel with Almona through dark Bombay streets and hallways. In
“What I Have
to Tell You,” its main character Orion Wong falls out of love with his
wife and
struggles with telling his young son, Kona, the bad news. But just as
Orion is
on the cusp of confession, the boat that they are on is suddenly caught
in the
middle of what can only described as a magical moment out at sea.
We are proud
to showcase the art of two talented
women whose names you should take note of—Heidi Woan and Madiha
Siraj—and to
share three interviews with three very generous, inspiring authors:
Nami Mun,
Chang-Rae Lee, and Jaime Ford. And we are certainly beaming to mention
that
Randa Jarrar, one of the featured interviews in our Winter 2008/Issue
4, just
had her debut novel, A Map of Home,
released in paperback by Penguin, and Nami Mun recently won a Whiting
Award for
her novel, Miles From Nowhere.
In closing, I
want to thank our contributors and
the editorial board for making this issue as dazzling as it is. I look
forward
to reading more submissions come
spring. (Hint: Please submit! Please spread the word!) Most important,
I look
forward to growing with Kartika Review
and its supportive readership. As Chang-Rae Lee says, “We must write
only what
we want or can’t help but write about – often the only thing we can –
and hope
that the individuality and focus of that vision moves the reader, and
at some
point, perhaps, the wider culture.” It is my hope, then, that you, dear
readers, are as moved by this issue as we were when compiling the best
pieces.
Warmest
regards,
Jennifer
A. Derilo
