Mixed-race authors write fantasies with Asian and Middle Eastern heroesPosted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Media Archive on 2017-07-11 01:36Z by Steven |
Mixed-race authors write fantasies with Asian and Middle Eastern heroes
The Straits Times
Singapore
2017-07-10
 Roshani Chokshi was shortlisted in February for a Nebula award for The Star-Touched Queen (2016), which is steeped in Hindu mythology and folklore. PHOTO: AMAN SHARMA |
Authors Roshani Chokshi and Renee Ahdieh struggled to identify with the white protagonists of books they read growing up and have written stories that draw on their heritage
Young adult authors from mixed- race backgrounds are making their mark with fantasy worlds that draw not on European fairy tales or Greek myth, but on Sanskrit epic or samurai lore, and where the heroines are not blonde or blue-eyed but Asian or Middle Eastern.
Among these is best-selling Scottish-Korean-American author Renee Ahdieh, who drew on the Arabian Nights and her husband’s Persian roots for the Scheherazade-inspired novel The Wrath And The Dawn (2015) and its sequel The Rose And The Dagger (2016). She is exploring feudal Japan in her new novel Flame In The Mist.
Writer Roshani Chokshi, an American of Indian-Filipino descent, was shortlisted in February for a Nebula award for The Star-Touched Queen (2016), which is steeped in Hindu mythology and folklore…
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