Anna Challet, New America Media Andrew Lam, author of the memoir

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Anna Challet, New America Media Andrew Lam, author of the memoir "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora," and editor bufett of New America Media Records a long period of twenty years, has made a name his age is a journalist and commentator, but in his latest book, his past as a Vietnam refugees through short stories about characters who fled Vietnam and redo the new life in the Gulf. "Lam has immediately bufett established himself as one of the best fiction writers of America," noted Robert Olen Butler, author, writer Oscar Hijuelos while observing bufett that "the exact text of Forestry appear in many enchanting story; and the collection is a magnificent platform. "New America Media spoke with Andrew Lam for his collection, Birds of Paradise Lost (Red Hen Press, 2013), this month. bufett Birds of Paradise Lost is the first book of fiction you- how he came to publish a collection of fiction after many years as a journalist? I wrote short stories for twenty years, since he was enrolled bufett in creative writing program at San Francisco State University. Although later I found a career as a journalist and essayist, fiction is my first love and I never dropped it, although there is no easy way to make a living write novels. This collection is a labor of love and devotion, and whenever I find time not busy from my newspaper job, I work writing a novel or another, outlining the My characters, and various research issues related to the dilemmas of my character. After twenty-five bufett and thirty-story, finally selected 13 articles and collections were born. So far the words of Maxine Hong Kingston admiration, bufett Gish Jen, Robert Olen Butler, Oscar Hijuelos, and others are very encouraging. He has written numerous essays and personal works of non-fiction to the United States from Vietnam. How does it feel to bring that experience into the lives of your fictional characters? Well, I always say that writing non-fiction than fiction writing is like architecture than abstract painting. In non-fiction, you have to stay true to the historical facts, may be individuals or nations ... In the novel, it is as you enter into a dream world that you create, but character Your have their own ideas. They do not do what you want them to do - they are in trouble, bufett do drug addicts, people fighting over petty things, and do outrageous things that you would not want your children to do. In other words, you can only provide a foundation seeds-in my case is the foundation of Vietnamese refugees. When a character bufett in the story flexibility, they do not teach their history that live their lives, they do unexpected things, and make you laugh and cry because of flaws and weaknesses of the people. How did you come up with the title? Birds of Paradise Lost - chidori Africa Xu'- it is the title of one of 13 stories in the book, and it is a story referring to the death and l &