Tropic of Orange
Karen Tei Yamashita, Sesshu Foster (introduction)Irreverently juggling magical realism, film noir, hip-hop, & chicanismo, Tropic of Orange takes place in a Los Angeles where the homeless, gangsters, infant organ entrepreneurs, & Hollywood collide on a stretch of the Harbor Freeway. Hemmed in by wildfires, it’s a symphony conducted from an overpass: grandiose, comic, & as diverse as the city itself.
About the Author
Karen Tei Yamashita is the author of Letters to Memory, Through the Arc of the Rain Forest, Brazil-Maru, Tropic of Orange, Circle K Cycles, I Hotel, & Anime Wong, all published by Coffee House Press. I Hotel was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award & awarded the California Book Award, the American Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Award, & the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. She has been a US Artists Ford Foundation Fellow & co-holder of the University of California Presidential Chair for Feminist & Critical Race & Ethnic Studies. She is currently Professor Emeritus of Literature & Creative Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Sesshu Foster taught composition & literature in East L.A. for over 20 years, & at the University of Iowa, the California Institute for the Arts, & the University of California, Santa Cruz. His work is published in The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry, Language for a New Century: Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond, & State of the Union: 50 Political Poems. His most recent books are ELADATL: A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines, a novel, City of the Future, poetry; World Ball Notebook, poetry; & Atomik Aztex, a novel.