Some (Outside) Notes About Water Mirror Echo

T-1 to Pub Day, but we've got advance reviews and interviews!

Less than 24 hours to pub day! But Water Mirror Echo has been making a little bit of noise…

Our favorite words (blushing face) come from our friend, Sean McDonald, the publisher of MCD/FSG Books:

And it’s been a blast to do these recent interviews!

First off, there’s the great

Katie Gee Salisbury

, whose newsletter Half-Case Woman is on my must-read list all the time. By the way we’re continuing this conversation on Wednesday at the Center for Brooklyn History — on Anna May Wong and Bruce Lee, two dragons in Hollywood. Click through to her piece on Substack and subscribe.

And here’s a fine piece from the bard of San Jose,

Gary Singh

.

And we have podcasts!

This from the legendary journalist

Jeff Schechtman

, who told me off-mic that in a previous life he had been Fred Weintraub’s assistant on Enter The Dragon (!!!), a fact that sent my heart racing… click to listen.

Brendan O'Meara

has an amazing podcast called the Creative Nonfiction podcast, and he also has an amazing new biography called The Front Runner: The Life of Steve Prefontaine. Check out both! Here we got to talk not just about Bruce and Pre, but about the life and craft of writing and even a bit of philosophy. Great fun! Click through to the listening page.

I’ve loved

Donnell Alexander

’s writings going back to the 1990s and our time at the aesthetic edges of the Central Valley together, and

Lev Anderson

’s films since we met for his incredible Fishbone doc. You can imagine what a great time we had on this podcast…

Oakland’s own Alexis Madrigal got to rock this all-too-short morning episode of KQED Forum. The call-ins were awesome! If you enjoyed this, we’re picking up the mics again at their new “community resilience hub” space in Rockridge called Local Economy. Come join us on October 28th! Register here.

KPFA’s Mitch Jeserich is one of my favorite local radio hosts, and I’ve been lucky to sit with him for every book that I’ve written since Who We Be. Enjoy this interview from his Letters & Politics show!

Pastor Ken Fong’s Asian America podcast has been a mainstay for many of us - and his was the first podcast I got to do for Water Mirror Echo. It was, I thought, a great omen for this book! Click below to listen.

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And here are some other quick advance takes… let us know what you think after tomorrow!