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<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp- ...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" > <channel> <title></title> <atom:link href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog</link> <description></description> <lastBuildDate>Thu, 15 Nov 2018 03:11:24 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency> <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.25</generator> <item> <title>The Best Small Fictions 2019 Nominations</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=782</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=782#respond</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 15 Nov 2018 03:11:24 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Best Small Fictions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Braddock Avenue Books]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=782</guid> <description><![CDATA[On the heels of announcing our 2018 Pushcart Prize nominations, we’re glad to reveal our nominees for The Best Small Fictions 2019 anthology. They are as follows: Gene Albamonte – “Dispatches from Suburbia” (March/April 2018) William Beeker – “Angina Pectoris” (September/October 2018) Kim Hagerich – “Semiboneless” (January/February 2018) William Hoffacker – “Attempting to Dodge a Scorching Ray, […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/c97287ae0f6206f57ab2744cdcd038661.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-768" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/c97287ae0f6206f57ab2744cdcd038661.jpeg" alt="" width="256" height="103" /></a></p><p>On the heels of announcing our 2018 Pushcart Prize nominations, we’re glad to reveal our nominees for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheBestSmallFictions/"><em>The Best Small Fictions</em> 2019</a> anthology. They are as follows:</p><p>Gene Albamonte – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/dispatchesfromsuburbia.htm">“Dispatches from Suburbia”</a> (March/April 2018)<br />William Beeker – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/anginapectoris.htm">“Angina Pectoris”</a> (September/October 2018)<br />Kim Hagerich – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/semiboneless.htm">“Semiboneless”</a> (January/February 2018)<br />William Hoffacker – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/attemptingtododge.htm">“Attempting to Dodge a Scorching Ray, You Roll a 7”</a> (May/June 2018)<br />Marlene Olin – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/trapped.htm">“Trapped”</a> (March/April 2018)</p><p>We hope you’ll check out these flash fictions (again).</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=782</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>2018 Pushcart Prize Nominations</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=779</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=779#respond</comments> <pubDate>Thu, 15 Nov 2018 02:47:52 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pushcart Prize]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=779</guid> <description><![CDATA[Congratulations to our 2018 Pushcart Prize nominees! They are as follows: Kim Hagerich – “Semiboneless” (prose, January/February 2018) Philip Memmer – “The God of Sky” (poetry, May/June 2018) Tyler Munro – “Big Bo Goes Boom” (prose, March/April 2018) Robert James Russell – “Anthropocene Moves” (prose, March/April 2018) Marvin Shackelford – “Gorgon” (poetry, January/February 2018) Amie […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-761" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg" alt="" width="416" height="120" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg 416w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic-300x87.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px" /></a></p><p>Congratulations to our 2018 <a href="http://www.pushcartprize.com/">Pushcart Prize</a> nominees! They are as follows:</p><p>Kim Hagerich – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/semiboneless.htm">“Semiboneless”</a> (prose, January/February 2018)<br />Philip Memmer – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/memmerpoems.htm">“The God of Sky”</a> (poetry, May/June 2018)<br />Tyler Munro – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/bigbogoesboom.htm">“Big Bo Goes Boom”</a> (prose, March/April 2018)<br />Robert James Russell – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/anthropocenemoves.htm">“Anthropocene Moves”</a> (prose, March/April 2018)<br />Marvin Shackelford – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/gorgon.htm">“Gorgon”</a> (poetry, January/February 2018)<br />Amie Zimmerman – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/zimmermanpoems.htm">“midnight vigil for the slick”</a> (poetry, July/August 2018)</p><p>Naturally, we think they all should be included in the anthology, and we hope you’ll (re)read these stories and poems.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=779</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>2018 Best of the Net Nominations</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=776</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=776#respond</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2018 02:10:04 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Best of the Net]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=776</guid> <description><![CDATA[We’re glad to nominate the following pieces for the 2018 Best of the Net anthology: Poems Al Maginnes – “One Trouble With Stories” (May/June 2018) Amber McBride – “Black Witch Moth (Ascalapha odorata)” (March/April 2018) Bridget O’Bernstein – “I Think I Hit My Orthodontist Twice” (March/April 2018) Demi Richardson – “California Burn Ban” (May/June 2018) […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We’re glad to nominate the following pieces for the <a href="http://www.sundresspublications.com/bestof/">2018 <em>Best of the Net</em></a> anthology:</p><p><strong>Poems</strong><br />Al Maginnes – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/onetroublewithstories.htm">“One Trouble With Stories”</a> (May/June 2018)<br />Amber McBride – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/blackwitchmoth.htm">“Black Witch Moth (<em>Ascalapha odorata</em>)”</a> (March/April 2018)<br />Bridget O’Bernstein – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/obernsteinpoems.htm">“I Think I Hit My Orthodontist Twice”</a> (March/April 2018)<br />Demi Richardson – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/californiaburnban.htm">“California Burn Ban”</a> (May/June 2018)<br />Marvin Shackelford – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/gorgon.htm">“Gorgon”</a> (January/February 2018)<br />Robert Wrigley – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/wrigleypoems.htm">“Morphine”</a> (March/April 2018)</p><p><strong>Stories</strong><br />Yasmina Din Madden – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/agooknotachink.htm">“A Gook, Not a Chink”</a> (March/April 2018)<br />Don Malkemes – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/walgreens.htm">“Walgreens at Armitage & Albany”</a> (November/December 2017)</p><p>Thanks for (re)reading. May they fare well.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=776</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>The Best Small Fictions 2018 Nominations</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=764</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=764#respond</comments> <pubDate>Sun, 17 Dec 2017 07:48:21 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Aimee Bender]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Best Small Fictions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Braddock Avenue Books]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=764</guid> <description><![CDATA[Congratulations to the authors whose work we’ve nominated for Braddock Avenue Books’s The Best Small Fictions 2018, guest edited by Aimee Bender and slated for publication in September 2018. Our nominations are as follows: Kim Magowan – “Nepenthes” (September/October 2017) Chris Murphy – “Your Burning Hair” (May/June 2017) Jason Thayer – “Your Curse” (January 2017) Dan […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/c97287ae0f6206f57ab2744cdcd038661.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-768 aligncenter" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/c97287ae0f6206f57ab2744cdcd038661.jpeg" alt="" width="256" height="103" /></a></p><p>Congratulations to the authors whose work we’ve nominated for Braddock Avenue Books’s <a href="http://www.braddockavenuebooks.com/bookmark/best-small-fictions-2018-nomination-guidelines" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Best Small Fictions 2018</em></a>, guest edited by Aimee Bender and slated for publication in September 2018. Our nominations are as follows:</p><p>Kim Magowan – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/nepenthes.htm">“Nepenthes”</a> (September/October 2017)</p><p>Chris Murphy – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/yourburninghair.htm">“Your Burning Hair”</a> (May/June 2017)</p><p>Jason Thayer – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/yourcurse.htm">“Your Curse”</a> (January 2017)</p><p>Dan Tremaglio – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/shortstorycollectionstory.htm">“Short Story Collection Story”</a> (April 2017)</p><p>Yun Wei – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/theladyclock.htm">“The Lady Clock”</a> (February 2017)</p><p>Best of luck to them!</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=764</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>2017 Pushcart Prize Nominations</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=760</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=760#respond</comments> <pubDate>Mon, 27 Nov 2017 03:11:47 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pushcart Prize]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=760</guid> <description><![CDATA[A hearty congratulations to our nominees for the 2017 Pushcart Prize. Find them below: Jasmine V. Bailey – “Texas Journal” (poetry, Apr. ’17) Aaron Brame – “Self-Portrait as Labyrinth” (poetry, Jan. ’17) Will Donnelly – “The Urn” (prose, Sept./Oct. ’17) Stephanie Reents – “Naked Selfie” (prose, Feb. ’17) Jason Thayer – “Your Curse” (prose, Jan. […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-761" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg" alt="" width="416" height="120" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg 416w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PushcartPrize-Graphic-300x87.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px" /></a></p><p>A hearty congratulations to our nominees for the 2017 <a href="http://www.pushcartprize.com/">Pushcart Prize</a>. Find them below:</p><p>Jasmine V. Bailey – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/baileypoems.htm">“Texas Journal”</a> (poetry, Apr. ’17)<br />Aaron Brame – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/self-portraitaslabyrinth.htm">“Self-Portrait as Labyrinth”</a> (poetry, Jan. ’17)<br />Will Donnelly – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/theurn.htm">“The Urn”</a> (prose, Sept./Oct. ’17)<br />Stephanie Reents – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/nakedselfie.htm">“Naked Selfie”</a> (prose, Feb. ’17)<br />Jason Thayer – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/yourcurse.htm">“Your Curse”</a> (prose, Jan. ’17)<br />Chrys Tobey – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/tobeypoems.htm">“Because We Were Neanderthals”</a> (poetry, May/Jun. ’17)</p><p>We hope you’ll revisit these poems and stories, and we wish the authors luck during the selection process.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=760</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>2017 Best of the Net Nominations</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=757</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=757#respond</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 20 Sep 2017 01:20:19 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Best of the Net]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=757</guid> <description><![CDATA[We’re pleased to nominate the following work for the 2017 Best of the Net awards: Poems Amy Strauss Friedman – “Autopsy” – Sep. ’16 Adam Edelman – “What I Learned from Dracula” – Dec. ’16 John Gallaher – “Poem for Your Birthday if This Is Your Birthday” – Feb. ’17 Sarah Viren – “Falling” – […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We’re pleased to nominate the following work for the <a href="http://www.sundresspublications.com/bestof/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2017 <em>Best of the Net</em></a> awards:</p><p><strong>Poems</strong><br />Amy Strauss Friedman – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/autopsy.htm">“Autopsy”</a> – Sep. ’16<br />Adam Edelman – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/whatilearnedfromdracula.htm">“What I Learned from Dracula”</a> – Dec. ’16<br />John Gallaher – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/gallaherpoems.htm">“Poem for Your Birthday if This Is Your Birthday”</a> – Feb. ’17<br />Sarah Viren – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/virenpoems.htm">“Falling”</a> – Apr. ’17<br />Chrys Tobey – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/tobeypoems.htm">“Letter to My Ancestor”</a> – May/Jun. ’17<br />Joshua Johnston – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/cityhall.htm">“City Hall”</a> – May/Jun. ’17</p><p><strong>Stories</strong><br />William Squirrell – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/zrats.htm">“Z Rats!”</a> – Jan. ’17<br />Ron Riekki – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/america.htm">“America”</a> – Apr. ’17</p><p>We hope you’ll revisit these poems and stories. And, as always, we wish the authors luck in the selection process.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=757</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>“Stamped: Notes from an Itinerant Artist” Vol. 11</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=743</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=743#respond</comments> <pubDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2017 05:23:17 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category> <category><![CDATA[C. G. Fewston]]></category> <category><![CDATA[colonial travel]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Donald Trump]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Stamped]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Viet Thanh Nguyen]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Vietnam]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=743</guid> <description><![CDATA[With this eleventh installment, Prose Editor Kawika Guillermo continues “Stamped: Notes from an Itinerant Artist,” a travel series focusing mostly on art, literary exhibitions, and “artist areas” around Asia (and perhaps beyond). Note: The views expressed here are entirely the author’s own and do not claim to represent those of decomP.   On Trump and Colonial Travel […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With this eleventh installment, Prose Editor <strong>Kawika Guillermo</strong> continues “Stamped: Notes from an Itinerant Artist,” a travel series focusing mostly on art, literary exhibitions, and “artist areas” around Asia (and perhaps beyond).</p><p>Note: The views expressed here are entirely the author’s own and do not claim to represent those of <em>decomP</em>.</p><p> </p><p><strong>On Trump and Colonial Travel</strong></p><p>I was on an airplane when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. When we landed in Hong Kong, I was so sure that “H” had already won, that when I saw my friends turn white from reading their phones, numbed by the news, I thought a bomb had dropped. I recall the faces of those around me–the Hong Kongers and mainland Chinese, coming direct from Vancouver, Canada, each one speechless, as if the light from their phones induced them to silence. Then I looked forward, to the first class and business class cabins. There was a group of Westerners, silent not from shock, but from trying to conceal their smiles. One of them, a man in a dark blue blazer, stood up straight and closed his eyes, straightening his body in place as if to keep from jumping for joy.</p><p>Four days later, I saw what lied behind these smiles at an Open Mic poetry reading in Central, Hong Kong’s old colonial district. A dark-skinned poet from Canada read a poem about his deep sadness after the election. Immediately after, an outraged man (white) spoke on stage, shouting that we needed to respect Trump and his wife–since she knows four languages, he pointed out–and “Fuck you” to anyone who writes badly of them (his finger pointing to the previous poet). The Open Mic became a literary war zone. A young woman (Asian, diasporic) took the stage with her personal poem detailing her fear and hope for the future after Trump. Then a man (white, American) asked his Russian girlfriend to go on stage and read his poem, which included the phrase “I was chatting with this chink from Vietnam,” and ended with complaints about how American women were too fat and Asian women were just right. A friend of mine, a visiting poet, asked me if it was appropriate to kick his ass.</p><p>It took me two months to fully process these reactions to Trump’s election. Even as a travel writer, university professor, and teacher, I have never been able to let go of the notion that travel, and living overseas, can make you a better person. Better at understanding different cultures. Better at appreciating different ways of life. Better at loving those around you. But for the past year, since living in China and Hong Kong–and since beginning this blog–I’ve come to the opposite conclusion. Travel, if anything, makes you more certain of the prejudices you have. It couples your ignorance of others with the certainty that you already know everything about other cultures, and that they are just as despicable as you are.</p><p>Sound too dramatic, too simplistic, too reactive? Fine, I don’t mean that everyone who travels becomes a bigot. But those who travel, particularly those who write and talk about their travel experiences, often do so with the clamor of a medieval knight errant spouting tales of how they rescued a local damsel from the evil barbarians.</p><p>OK, so I don’t mean all travel writers. I have in mind a type of travel writer, the new colonial writer, represented in one particular author–C. G. Fewston, an expatriate author in Hong Kong who claims to have been nominated for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize and the 2016 PEN/Faulkner award for a novel, <em>A Time to Love in Tehran</em>, (evidence on both of these claims has been entirely absent, but I invite anyone to assist in fact-checking). Not long after Trump’s election, I got into a Twitter-spat with this author when he started trolling the writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the <em>actual</em> Pulitzer Prize nominated (and won) novel, <em>The Sympathizer</em>. Nguyen is a Vietnamese refugee, which Fewston (who has lived in Vietnam) sees as a reason to disqualify him from the Pulitzer:</p><p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet1-1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-746" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet1-1.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="96" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet1-1.jpg 550w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet1-1-300x52.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a></p><p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-747" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet2.jpg" alt="" width="371" height="162" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet2.jpg 550w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet2-300x131.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 371px) 100vw, 371px" /></a></p><p> </p><p>As an admirer of Nguyen’s work since I was a graduate student, I responded to this stream of tweets with deserving vitriol:</p><p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet3.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-748" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet3.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="292" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet3.jpg 550w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet3-300x159.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a></p><p> </p><p>This was enough for Mr. Fewston to ban me from his Twitter account. In time, however, I began to get word from fellow Hong Kong writers that this author was “at it again,” posting a slew of tweets against Nguyen, Junot Díaz, as well as refugees, immigrants, and people of color generally:</p><p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet4.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-749" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet4.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="498" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet4.jpg 550w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/tweet4-300x272.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a></p><p> </p><p>I won’t bother dissecting these piece-by-piece, except to say that Mr. Fewston is clearly one of thousands of American expatriates in Asia emboldened by Trump’s wall, Trump’s refugee policies, Trump’s white nationalism. It isn’t Mr. Fewston’s political position that interests me, but his means of using travel itself to legitimate anti-immigrant rhetoric that masks itself with “#love,” and with his own standing as an immigrant in Hong Kong. His knowledge of Viet Kieus is deployed to name a refugee as un-American, and if you disagree, it’s because you don’t know what a Viet Kieu is (he will educate you). His knowledge of “Vietnam’s Civil War,” as he calls it, erases America completely from the picture. His self-named “travel writer” position allows him to spit this nonsense while claiming to be “apolitical” (the haven for those whose politics ally with no communities or peoples). His travels give him an enlightened “worldview,” which others cannot begin to comprehend, trapped as they are in their American racial identities.</p><p>We are all familiar with this. Mr. Fewston’s travel is the type of travel of the colonials, old and new; of the traders who once worked for the East India Company but now work for J. P. Morgan; of the religious zealots like Marco Polo who now seek to rescue Asians from themselves (especially beautiful female Asians); of the travel writers who created barbarians and cannibals and who now write of exotic women and tyrannical Asian men. These travelers have always used comparisons to justify hate. They see hate and bigotry in other countries, regard it as a fact of life, and see racism in the U.S. as no big deal.</p><p> </p><p><strong>How to Travel like a Colonial (Hint: You’re Probably Already Doing It) </strong></p><p>There are many ways one can travel. But in the 21st century, like in the age of colonialism, imperialism, and chattel slavery before it, most travel routes are fixed to make Westerners more certain in their own prejudices. Industries of tourism, English-language learning, and colonial enterprises have set-up travel as just another scheme to reward arrogance. And in an era of identity politics, when we all want to be minorities, it’s a way for the most privileged among us to have their own stories of prejudice to tell.</p><p>I’m a traveler of sorts, and I’ve heard the same rant from white Americans in every major Asian city, from #Seoul to #Shanghai to #HongKong. It’s the “we are the minorities now” rant, where Westerners fantasize that they are being harmed just for being white. At a time when immigrants and refugees are under attack in the U.S., this takes on a particularly sinister form of colonial arrogance. Claiming that because you were an expatriate in South Korea you know what it is to be a minority in the U.S. would be like taking a tour of the Grand Canyon and claiming that you really know what life is like “living on the edge.”</p><p>But the white colonial experience in Asia, as much as some of us would like to believe, is not the same level of social integration expected (demanded, forced) as a Muslim refugee in the US. It’s not even “same same but different.” Sure, you may have suffered loneliness (even among the women available), you may have suffered time (filling out multiple Visa forms), you may have suffered financially (paying double taxes), but think–are these anywhere similar to the terrors of the police, the FBI, the lynch mobs, the courts, who have always protected majorities over minorities? Were you ever vulnerable to an omnivorous prison complex targeted at you and your family? Were you ever told to change your religion, your values, your language?</p><p>In the age of identity victimhood, travel can offer everyone a part to play. No wonder the most privileged of us obsess over the types of travel that offer instances of fabricated danger–in camp sites, in tourist cities of Thailand, China, Cambodia, in music festivals, in clubs, in casinos, in drugs. We embrace these moments as memories of “risk,” when really we were no more taking risks than a family visit to Disneyland. We pretend that after wallowing in a hostel in India we are suddenly equal victims as those black bodies living on the streets of Baltimore, Washington D.C., or Detroit. We get food sickness and pretend we can now understand the dysentery plaguing the starving. These attitudes bring us no closer to those we now claim to understand, but merely widen the gulf with our newfound arrogance. And in that arrogance we go on, guilt free, back into the dream made for everyone and no one.</p><p>Some of these colonial authors will use stories of pretend oppression to fold back into protecting their American heritage. They will insist that Americans join the rest of the world in racist exclusions. They will see how Koreans protect Koreanness, Japanese protect Japaneseness, and our writer in turn will move to protect Americanness as a white cowboy Christian mythology. They will say, straight-faced, that if Asian countries can protect their mythical national race, why can’t we? Victimhood, migrancy, historical marginalization–these are mere games for these players, these movers, these managers, these writers, these travelers. But the pieces locked into the board are not playing along.</p><p>The biggest question for the traveling writer is not about the space itself but why we are inhabiting it. You the American traveler, who came armed with the world’s highest-valued passport, who could afford to burn cash and jet-fuel on a prolonged vacation, you who reside in a land that belongs to others but has been ready-made for you, with a job just for you, an inhabitance just for you, and people willing to risk social stigma just to spend time with you. What are you doing here, really? What do you hope to take from this place, really?</p><p> </p><p><strong>Self-Tourism</strong></p><p>Travel can expose the dark sides of the world, so it is natural that it can make us more prejudiced. By being exposed to atrocities, we can walk away believing that, by acting on our prejudices, we are merely matching the prejudice of the rest of the world. Yes, there is racism, bigotry, and hate in every country. But there is also protest, struggle, and organized resistance. In every country you will meet those who are part of the struggle for justice, whether they are trying to impeach a president (as in South Korea last year) or are writing editorials that will make them targets for censorship and state violence (as in China, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia). And in every country there are those who see hate everywhere, who have traveled just to come back and say “they do it over there, so why can’t we?”</p><p>For those of you living in America, who see the writings of colonial travelers and say, “at least they’re not in the U.S.,” I have a wake-up call for you. These travelers and expats, who might be LBHs (“losers back home”), are well respected in Asia. Many of them are educators, entrusted to represent American history, culture, and politics. They are “young professionals,” poets, writers, artists, intelligentsia. Now, with the election of a man who seeks to rid the U.S. of non-Christian, non-Western elements, they are emboldened. They seek to represent America’s voice to the world, as expert travelers of the world. And here, people are listening.</p><p> </p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=743</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>Nominations for Braddock Avenue Books’s The Best Small Fictions 2017</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=726</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=726#respond</comments> <pubDate>Fri, 16 Dec 2016 00:01:30 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Best Small Fictions]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Braddock Avenue Books]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=726</guid> <description><![CDATA[Into the fray we send the following nominees for Braddock Avenue Books’s The Best Small Fictions 2017, guest edited by Amy Hempel and slated for publication in September 2017: Meghan Callahan – “Epitaphios” (April 2016) Chad Frame – “Bat Boy and Sean Penn Meet El Chapo in Secret Jungle Fort Hideout, No Girls Allowed” (March […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/c97287ae0f6206f57ab2744cdcd038661.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-737 alignright" title="c97287ae0f6206f57ab2744cdcd03866" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/c97287ae0f6206f57ab2744cdcd038661.jpeg" alt="" width="256" height="103" /></a>Into the fray we send the following nominees for Braddock Avenue Books’s </span><em style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.braddockavenuebooks.com/bookmark/big-news" target="_blank">The Best Small Fictions 2017</a></em><span style="text-align: justify;">, guest edited by Amy Hempel and slated for publication in September 2017:</span></p><p>Meghan Callahan – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/epitaphios.htm" target="_blank">“Epitaphios”</a> (April 2016)</p><p>Chad Frame – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/batboyandseanpenn.htm" target="_blank">“Bat Boy and Sean Penn Meet El Chapo in Secret Jungle Fort Hideout, No Girls Allowed”</a> (March 2016)</p><p>Hillary Leftwich – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/sabaontheshore.htm" target="_blank">“Saba on the Shore”</a> (July 2016)</p><p>Alice Martin – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/coverup.htm" target="_blank">“Cover Up”</a> (June 2016)</p><p>Michael Putnam – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/throughprocessofelimination.htm" target="_blank">“Through Process of Elimination”</a> (December 2016)</p><p>We wish them luck in the selection process and hope you’ll re-read them.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=726</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>“Stamped: Notes from an Itinerant Artist” Vol. 10</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=706</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=706#respond</comments> <pubDate>Wed, 30 Nov 2016 04:09:15 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category> <category><![CDATA[China]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Hong Kong]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Stamped]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=706</guid> <description><![CDATA[With this tenth installment, Prose Editor Kawika Guillermo continues “Stamped: Notes from an Itinerant Artist,” a travel series focusing mostly on art, literary exhibitions, and “artist areas” around Asia (and perhaps beyond). Hong Kong Domestic Workers in the Gallery Six months ago I visited the Hong Kong contemporary art gallery, Para Site, when it hosted “Afterwork,” a […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: justify;">With this tenth installment, Prose Editor <strong>Kawika Guillermo</strong> continues “Stamped: Notes from an Itinerant Artist,” a travel series focusing mostly on art, literary exhibitions, and “artist areas” around Asia (and perhaps beyond).</p><p><strong>Hong Kong Domestic Workers in the Gallery</strong></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Six months ago I visited the Hong Kong contemporary art gallery, Para Site, when it hosted <a href="http://www.para-site.org.hk/en/exhibitions/afterwork" target="_blank">“Afterwork,”</a> a collection of work about migrant domestic workers. <a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=605" target="_blank">The blog I wrote then</a> was about the (mostly white) audience who patronized the gallery on its opening. I feel this was a mistake. The artists themselves had little control over how the expatriate community would receive their work. The anger I felt distracted me from the art itself, which I hope to rectify in this installment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Only six months later, in retrospect, does it become clear how these artworks were pushing against the grain. The artworks flat-out rejected ideas of migrant workers as heroes celebrated on Migrant Workers Week and applauded in Hong Kong when they’re not caught stealing or going to bars. But it also rejects the Human Rights version of them as helpless victims. The introduction to the exhibit selects work that shows “how the Southeast Asian ‘other’ has been approached in Hong Kong and more broadly in Chinese culture.” It does not cater to the audience, as I presumed in the previous blog. The collection plays with the audience’s desire to hear the maid’s story, or to provide rescue. Its introduction reads, “Afterwork does not, however, mean to patronizingly give a voice to or be the vindicator of the struggles of migrant workers.” In Hong Kong migrant workers are seen as either unruly, willing and ungrateful thieves, or as church mice stamped with the oil of heroism and self-sacrifice.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The activist artist Daniela Ortiz’s contribution was titled <em>97 House Maids</em>. Ortiz took Facebook photos from upperclass Peruvians that unintentionally caught glimpses of their migrant workers. The frames display the erasure of migrant domestic workers as mere background or as props to hold up and support the family narrative.</p><p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-708" title="97housemaids1" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids1.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="203" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids1.jpg 550w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids1-300x110.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids2.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-709 aligncenter" title="97housemaids2" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids2.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a><img class="size-full wp-image-710 aligncenter" title="97housemaids3" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids3.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="351" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids3.jpg 233w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/97housemaids3-199x300.jpg 199w" sizes="(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px" /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The background labor is necessary to the storyhood of the family, yet the workers’ presence is effectively erased.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Taiwanese artist Jao Chai-en’s <em>REM Sleep</em> (2011) addresses the difficulties of dissecting life stories from migrant workers who themselves are paid to perform as puppets resembling religious purity. Chai-en does not simply interview migrant workers to discover their real story, but has them recite their dreams during REM Sleep, the only time when their strings aren’t being pulled, and no performance is being demanded from them.</p><p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/remsleep.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-718" title="remsleep" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/remsleep.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="171" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/remsleep.jpg 550w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/remsleep-300x93.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In this cruel reality, free thinking is only permitted during deep sleep. Their stories are meandering depictions of their own dreams: dreams of freedom, of family, of anger.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In Sun Yuan & Peng Yu’s <em>Hong Kong Intervention</em> (2011), the voice of the domestic worker becomes visible only through a final destructive act of anger and (presumably) vengeance: a grenade left on a kitchen counter, paired with the domestic worker who wishes the family harm, her back turned to keep herself anonymous.</p><p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/hongkongintervention.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-719" title="hongkongintervention" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/hongkongintervention.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="264" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/hongkongintervention.jpg 550w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/hongkongintervention-300x144.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px" /></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The un-knowable migrant body positioned next to the grenade shouts resentment and anger, but also threatens my own gaze staring at her, hoping to access her life story.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The solidarity presented in these works crosses national, racial and gendered borders. The ubiquity of migrant domestic work broaches into disadvantaged nations. These artists’ works immediately resonated with me. Isolated from Filipino and white communities as too mixed race, and called an “island hopper” even by close friends, I had accepted early on that I would remain a cleaner or service worker for most of my life, where I belonged with the other brown-skinned mulattos. In Las Vegas I worked jobs for $5.50 an hour where I cleaned, smiled, and absorbed all the stored-up resentment from every customer. If I was interested in a girl, that too was colored by race. If it didn’t work, I felt it was because of my Asian-ness, and if I got lucky, it was because she was looking for an exotic spin among the jungle hybrids. Even my small successes were taken away from me. After three years of applications, I finally got into graduate school, only to hear my best friend tell me (totally sober) that “I wish I were Asian like you, then I’d have everything given to me.” I never spoke to him again. I never spoke to a lot of people again. For years I have preferred isolation and estrangement. Why was everything, failure or success, sex or unsexed, blamed on my race? Was I really just a mere puppet, with this invisible being, “race,” pulling my strings?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps this is why, as a traveler, I’ve always felt more at home with locals or low-paid immigrants than with expatriates. Black, Asian, and other minority travelers I’ve met seem to feel the same. Leaving America is a political choice, it’s getting away from that pigeonholed identity, from the puppet master who forces you into exile even when you are home. As minorities we are always exilic, and it’s not a question of finding home or of fitting in but of just waking up one day without feeling his strings tugging at your every limb. But as travelers we carry new identities with us: upper-class, whimsical Americans, who can breeze in and out, armed with English and passports and ready-to-work jobs that make us indispensable.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Domestic workers in Hong Kong are the expatriate community’s Others. Where we always make above minimum wage, they always make well below it. Where we are pushed into isolated apartments, they are kept under twenty-four-hour surveillance by their adopted families, often living in the same rooms as the children. Where we can stay for months at a time with no explanation, they are kicked out after two weeks without a sponsor. Where we can gallivant in clubs and mix with locals, they are hunted down for any sexual trespass, and their mixing (in terms of pregnancy, prostitution) leaves them vulnerable to forced deportation. Where we are seen as contributing to the “globalness” of Hong Kong, they are seen as third world parasites. In the literary world, works like Jose Dalisay’s 2008 novel, <em>Soledad’s Sister</em>, and Mia Alvar’s short story “Shadow Families,” are unique gems that tell us different stories. And even in the garish business of the art world, there are still a few gems.</p><p>References</p><p>Daniela Ortiz’s <em><a href="http://www.daniela-ortiz.com/index.php?/projects/97-house-maids/" target="_blank">97 House Maids</a></em><em></em></p><p>Jao Chai-en’s <em><a href="https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jao-chai-en-rem-sleep" target="_blank">REM Sleep</a></em></p><p>Sun Yuan & Peng Yu’s <em><a href="http://hongwrong.com/domestic-maid-art/" target="_blank">Hong Kong Intervention</a></em></p><p style="text-align: center;">—</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Prose Editor <strong>Kawika Guillermo</strong> spends his days traversing around Asia, with Hong Kong as his beloved base. His fiction has appeared in <em>Feminist Studies</em>, <em>Drunken Boat</em>, <em>Tayo</em>, and <em>The Hawai’i Pacific Review</em>. His debut anti-travel novel, <em>Stamped</em>, will be published in Spring 2017 by CCLaP Press.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=706</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> <item> <title>2016 Pushcart Prize Nominations</title> <link>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=695</link> <comments>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=695#respond</comments> <pubDate>Sat, 29 Oct 2016 16:55:22 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator><![CDATA[decomP]]></dc:creator> <category><![CDATA[Awards]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Pushcart Prize]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?p=695</guid> <description><![CDATA[We’d like to congratulate our nominees for the 2016 Pushcart Prize. They are as follows: Micaela Bombard – “Cardinal” (poetry, Sept. ’16) Jeremy Packert Burke – “The Labyrinth” (prose, May ’16) Sarah Freligh – “A Civil War” (poetry, Oct. ’16) W. Todd Kaneko – “Self Portrait as Flash Gordon [Playground Terror Variant]” (poetry, Aug. ’16) John […]]]></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-696 aligncenter" title="PushcartPrize-Graphic" src="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg" alt="Pushcart Prize" width="416" height="120" srcset="http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PushcartPrize-Graphic.jpg 416w, http://decompmagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PushcartPrize-Graphic-300x86.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px" /></a></p><p>We’d like to congratulate our nominees for the 2016 <a href="http://www.pushcartprize.com" target="_blank">Pushcart Prize</a>. They are as follows:</p><p>Micaela Bombard – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/bombardpoems.htm" target="_blank">“Cardinal”</a> (poetry, Sept. ’16)<br />Jeremy Packert Burke – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/thelabyrinth.htm" target="_blank">“The Labyrinth”</a> (prose, May ’16)<br />Sarah Freligh – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/frelighpoems.htm" target="_blank">“A Civil War”</a> (poetry, Oct. ’16)<br />W. Todd Kaneko – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/kanekopoems.htm" target="_blank">“Self Portrait as Flash Gordon [Playground Terror Variant]”</a> (poetry, Aug. ’16)<br />John Searcy – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/thesorrowsofdeath-klaw.htm" target="_blank">“The Sorrows of Death-Klaw”</a> (prose, Aug. ’16)<br />Chelsea Laine Wells – <a href="http://www.decompmagazine.com/thecreationofsuffering.htm" target="_blank">“The Creation of Suffering”</a> (prose, Jun. ’16)</p><p>Good luck to them during the selection.</p>]]></content:encoded> <wfw:commentRss>http://decompmagazine.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=695</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> </item> </channel></rss> If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:
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