Dark Soil

"A centrifugal, suggestive way of looking at place through the lens of story." -Kirkus Reviews

"A stunning anthology uses the strength of story, both fiction and nonfiction, to address missing histories and revive the narratives that have too often been omitted." -Shelf Awareness

"Editor Angie Sijun Lou presents an innovative, provocative anthology. Fiction and mythographies (mythos + geography) engender piercing truths." -Terry Hong, Booklist

"Exploring a variety of marginalized lives, these stories and essays show the complex mix of culture, history, politics, and imagination that can make up a single place, whether that be California, Guam, or Ohio." -David Lewis, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Countering the relentless tendency of capitalist modernity, the exquisite geography of these chapters annihilates time by space. I can't stop thinking about Jose Saramago, especially Raised from the Ground. Dark Soil's multiple, stubborn narrators creatively mix humor and surprise with the extraordinary brutalities of ordinary violence. The book sings of planetary consciousness, refusing partitions and enclosures by remembering life in excess of such deadliness." -Ruth Wilson Gilmore

"Karen Tei Yamashita and the essayists of Dark Soil have brought to life figures who have been passed over in history and literature. This book is like burning thousands of incense sticks in their honor. Dark Soil is a must read." -George Ow Jr.

Past Praise for Karen Tei Yamashita:

Praise for I Hotel

2010 National Book Award Finalist
2011 American Book Award Winner
2010 California Book Award Winner
2011 Asian American Literary Award Fiction Finalist
2011 Asian American Literary Award Members' Choice Winner
2011 Asian/Pacific American Library Association (APALA) Book Award Winner in Adult Fiction

"Stunningly complete. . . . Yamashita accomplishes a dynamic feat of mimesis by throwing together achingly personal stories of lovers, old men, and orphaned children; able synopses of historical events and social upheaval . . . This powerful, deeply felt, and impeccably researched fiction is irresistibly evocative." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Exuberant, irreverent, passionately researched . . . Yamashita's colossal novel of the dawn of Asian American culture is the literary equivalent of an intricate and vibrant street mural depicting a clamorous and righteous era of protest and creativity." -Booklist, starred review

Praise for Sansei and Sensibility

Longlisted for the 2020 Believer Book Award in Fiction
Kirkus, Best Fiction of 2020
Poets & Writers, New and Noteworthy Books
Esquire, Best Books of Spring 2020
Literary Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2020

"The range of characters, sparkling humor, connective themes, and creative ambition all showcase Yamashita's impressive powers."-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An elegantly written, wryly affectionate mashup of Jane Austen and the Japanese immigrant experience. . . . Yamashita's reimagining of Austen is sympathetic and funny-and as on target as the movie Clueless." -Kirkus, starred review

Praise for Karen Tei Yamashita

Winner of the 2021 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters