Now that we’ve published over 50 episodes of AAWW Radio, we’re selecting a few of our favorites to republish for our new listeners. One of our earliest episodes is Migrant Father Fragment from 2017 featuring authors lê thị diễm thúy and Q.M. Zhang, moderated by Hua Hsu. It features wonderful readings of their books The Gangster We Are All Looking For and Accomplice to Memory and an incisive conversation about their writing process and putting memories to paper.

Q.M. Zhang’s Accomplice to Memory is a hybrid memoir/novel that’s part espionage, part historical documentary. Zhang tells the story of her father’s mysterious flight from China during the country’s Civil War and WWII. It’s all the silence and love that you’ve come to know from your Asian immigrant family, but with a dash of political intrigue. 

In The Gangster We Are All Looking For, Guggenheim Fellow lê thị diễm thúy tells the collage-like semi-autobiographical story of a refugee family that resettles in San Diego, leaving behind a stark past of war and liberation in Vietnam.