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While I wholly understand and support the drive to share anti-racist books and books explicitly on racial topics by Black writers right now, consider also supporting Black writers and academics in your field who have been doing amazing work outside of the strict limits the publishing industry tends to put on Black authors, in particular. Reginald Jackson is one of the academics I most admire both in his pre-modern Japanese scholarship/general writing (performance studies and queer theory and mourning and so much more in texts like The Tale of Genji??👌🏻) and also as someone who is invested in structural change within academia. He was the reader for my second Master’s thesis and his seminar on embodiment and pre-modern Japanese literature was one of the best courses I’ve ever taken. My baby knowledge of how to read Japanese calligraphy and Classical Japanese comes from his class. His most recent book, Textures of Mourning, is a beautiful exploration of the Genji. Japanese studies is a very East Asian and white dominated field, but the work Jackson has been doing for years has been so crucial to the current state of Japanese Studies. I highly suggest looking up and reading one of his articles or taking a look at this book if you have access to a university library (the rights for the emaki and Genji paintings are STEEP, so the book itself is very expensive to print).

What is there even to say. I’ve taken the last few days to follow along with what Black activists and writers have been saying about the George Floyd murder and protests. I am so skeptical about social media allowing for true change—yes, it can disseminate information (I found the Minnesota Freedom Fund @mnfreedomfund that way and donated) and highlight things that might otherwise go unnoticed without widespread outrage (as in the murder of Ahmad Arbery). But what I see the most in the writing I’ve combed through is something that often comes up, about how social media gives us a sense that we have acted, makes us act immediately to make sure we are the first ones in to decry something for optics, without tackling the parts of ourselves that support the world as it is. Asian Americans are often just as guilty of supporting white supremacy as the most stereotypical “hick” you can picture. So while we should post and while we discuss, more importantly we need to read, research, listen, lift up Black voices. And this all must be done at all times, not just during these moments of violence and pain. We all have our bubbles of influence that we can use to push the world towards something we want to see. As an editor, I make it a point to lift up Black writers in the Midwest, not just to discuss racial violence and horror, but to share whatever it is they want to write about, what is important to them, to bring these voices to the table that should have been theirs centuries ago. Silence is not always complacency—though it often is for large organizations, celebrities, and media entities—sometimes silence means we’re simply listening, taking note, and pushing the right voices forward outside of the social media trap. // The photo has...nothing to do with the caption, but it felt unnecessary for me, personally, to stage a photo when the caption is what I wanted to get out there.

Partner/Partner readings. My book club is reading Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs next and I am so sad shipping to/from Japan is spotty right now because it means I can only read it in English 😭 There are so many passages that I want to look up in Japanese to see how she expressed it and I can’t 😞 It only feels like a partial enjoyment for me because of this. #bilingualproblems #bookstagram #maggienelson #kawakamimieko

A color mood 🌧 The goal of finishing up a draft of one short story is going well and I’m aiming to be done by the end of May! The entire process of writing is my favorite: research, brainstorming, outlining, cutting things out, editing. It doesn’t pay my bills now but I’m happy to be able to do it. // #bookstagram

My grandmother had a lot of odds and ends that I got when she passed away when I was a teenager. One such thing is this gold box of stones from places she and my grandfather travelled to. There’s still an old piece of paper with each of the stones catalogued on it at the bottom of the box. I’m not sure why she collected these stones but I like to pick out a rock every few months and keep it at my desk as a worry stone. I pick at my nails pretty badly when stressed and there’s been a lot to be stressed over lately. I don’t know what stone this is, but it’ll be the one at my desk for now.

Osaka Obachan x pandemic. // #ヒョウ柄

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