Tom Cho 曹勵善 on X (formerly Twitter): “Sick of struggling with this short story but then… it’s really hard to describe God. At any rate, my mission today: to get closer to God. / X” Sick of struggling with this short story but then… it’s really hard to describe God. At any rate, my mission today: to get closer to God....
Read MoreByron Bay Writers Festival (the short-short version)
I’ve been so busy getting ready to move house that I forgot to mention – I’m going to the Byron Bay Writers Festival. I was initially scheduled to appear on panels on Friday 6 August and Saturday 7 August, but house moving has unfortunately interfered with that. However, I will be going up for the Friday of the festival. Here’s...
Read MoreI’m Chinese-Australian but…
Jose Borghino recently wrote a review of Wordlines, a new anthology of Australian writing edited by Hilary McPhee. I read this review today. Admittedly, I was reading the review with some self-interest because I have some pieces in this anthology (and, as it turns out, Borghino said something nice about them too: “Tom Cho’s surreal and...
Read MoreAn imaginary Q&A
About a week ago, I was asked – along with some other authors – to respond to an interview question for a feature story in the A2 section of The Age. The question was: “What question or questions do journalists never ask you, and what would your answer be?” I don’t know if my response (which was a little off-beat) ever made it...
Read MoreMy Yes function
Doing some research for this story I’m working on. This is from William James’ (1960) The Varieties of Religious Experience. James is discussing different mystical states of consciousness and he notes the intoxicating effects of alcohol: The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of...
Read MoreL’esorcista!
A little while ago, some of the pieces from my book Look Who’s Morphing were translated into Italian. The translator, Elena Carletti (a wonderful intern at Giramondo Publishing), has also been very proactive in submitting these works to Italian literary journals. Coming up soon, two pieces will be published – along with some photos showing a...
Read More