Long-time Amerasia Journal Editor Russell Leong and Professor King-Kok Cheung, who wrote the introduction to the collection Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories, share their thoughts on the passing of Hisaye Yamamoto:
It is Hisaye who has been the model for many of us–exploring new territories of gender, race, sexuality, etc.–even before the term “Asian American literature” ever existed. “A Fire in Fontana,” “Seventeen Syllables” and “High-heeled Shoes” are classics of American literature. She, and others such as N.V.M. Gonzalez and Carlos Bulosan, early on delved into the complexities of literary form amidst social chaos and made urgent sense of what they saw. They swept aside the residue of colonialism, racism, and sexism and cast a burning light to illuminate literature. Their works glow in the firmament of our imagination and belong forever to the universe. I see their words racing across constellations, creating new meanings for us who find ourselves yet among the living. Let us continue to read.
Russell Leong, New York City, NY
No contemporary writer has touched my heart, mind, and spirit as much as Hisaye Yamamoto. Whether writing about aborted creativity (“Seventeen Syllables”), doomed romance (“Epithalamium”), the dubious norms for sanity and insanity (“The Legend of Miss Sasagawara” and “Eucalyptus”), the havoc wrought by addictive gambling (“The Brown House” and “Las Vegas Charley”), or the debilitating effect of racism (“Wilshire Bus” and “A Fire in Fontana”), she does so with abiding compassion, keen eyes, wry humor, and prose that is at once disarming and harrowing.
Professor King-Kok Cheung, UCLA
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