Frank Abe with Karen Maeda Allman

Local author and friend of the store Frank Abe discusses his latest book, the co-edited anthology, The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration, with former longtime employee and continued event collaborator Karen Maeda Allman. This event is co-presented with our friends at Densho, a non-profit that documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II. The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration presents a new vision that recovers and reframes the literature produced by the people targeted by the actions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to deny Americans of Japanese ancestry any individual hearings or other due process after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. From nearly seventy selections of fiction, poetry, essays, memoirs, and letters emerges a shared story of the struggle to retain personal integrity in the face of increasing dehumanization – all anchored by the key government documents that incite the action. The selections favor the pointed over the poignant, and the unknown over the familiar, with several new translations among previously unseen works that have been long overlooked on the shelf, buried in the archives, or languished unread in the Japanese language. The writings are presented chronologically so that readers can trace the continuum of events as the incarcerees experienced it. The contributors span incarcerees, their children born in or soon after the camps, and their descendants who reflect on the long-term consequences of mass incarceration for themselves and the nation. Many of the voices are those of protest. Some are those of accommodation. All are authentic. Together they form an epic narrative with a singular vision of America’s past, one with disturbing resonances with the American present. Frank Abe is co-author of the graphic novel We Hereby Refuse and the American Book Award-winning John Okada: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy, and creator of the award-winning PBS documentary, Conscience and the Constitution. Karen Maeda Allman is an Assistant Agent at Wales Literary Agency. Prior to that, she worked as a bookseller for over 33 years, 23 of these as author events coordinator at the Elliott Bay Book Company. Karen also worked as a nurse and as a nurse educator for 20 years.

Event Links

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/2422249-0

Read More

View Less