Description

About the Book

MEMOIR | ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
ISBN: 9781736820933
Page Count: 82
Dimensions: 4.25″ x 0.24″ x 6.25″
Publisher: Blue Cactus Press

 

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Praise for Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho

 

“Coming of age in a world that sells romance as the holy grail of love and gives you hookup apps as a means to accomplish the task, Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho dares to make sense of whether a meaningful relationship is even possible. Kumiho awakens to the ancient power of being a sexual female creature, exploring the roles of prey and predator, and navigating the emotional toll. Alissa Tu’s debut experimental memoir gives voice to the deep hunger for a profound soul connection that lives inside us all.” – Amy Solo, educator and author of Mothers, Lovers and Roadside Burials

 

“Alissa Tu’s debut novella, Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho follows the treacherous, lavender-scented paths of love of the titular Kumiho, a nine-tailed fox with a taste for men’s livers and hearts. Tu’s paratactical prose creates a labyrinth that seduces readers right into the blood-soaked fangs of her narrator. Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho is the sensual, gorey, and brilliantly honest look at the hellish landscape of modern romance and the endless road to self-love. To sum it up in the author’s own words, ‘the tension burned me.’” – Carlito Espudo

 

“A memoir of hunger, sex, shifting narration of the self, and the roles in which we cast our partners and prey – this book is so relatable in the ways you don’t want to admit in the daylight. Tu deals in the hurtful, fragile moments of mortality between ancient myths and the modern gods of technology, loneliness, and self-love. And, as promised, Tu gives readers a true confession, where the narrative is piecemeal, unsettling, continually escalating, and where connections which appear subjective at first become intricately woven and broken threads throughout.” – Emilie Rommel Shimkus, author, and actress

 

“Tu unleashes her record of heartbreak and boy drama, all under the guise of a mythic fox who eats men’s hearts. But between DM transcripts and Tumblr anons, these aren’t the ramblings of a bloodthirsty creature. Rather, a late night goss sesh with a good friend.” – Jonah Barrett, author of Moss Covered Claws and director of The Tetrahedron

 

“A unique glimpse into a creative soul, Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho, traverses a young woman’s life in the intimate moments of relationships. Told through myth and metaphor, the moments feel both universal and uniquely personal. As she struggles with the mythos of love, the realities of modern dating, the cultural racism around Asian women, and the objectification of all women, Alissa Tu doesn’t shy away from self-reflection but chooses to craft a narrative that is all her own.” – Bethany Maines, award-winning author of Bulletproof Mascara

 

“Watch Out Readers. Check your hearts, livers, kidneys. Make sure they are still there. Alissa Tu is here, ready to devour what most feminists would consider as marginally devoted, demoted, decapitatable. Tu’s sassy and supercool work is better than any dating apps! Swipe right into her cloister or jailhouse and soar!” – Vi Khi Nao, author of Sheep Machine, Umbilical Hospital, and A Brief Alphabet of Torture

 

“Don’t be surprised If you find yourself rooting for the beast who eats the flesh of men who betrayed her. Thoughts of revenge seem reasonable when the object of our affection poisons our self-assurance with lies and indifference. Or maybe we are the ones who betray ourselves through self-delusion, by seeing more than is there in the first place? Alissa Tu’s observation that, ‘My fatal flaw is letting men who put my heart aside crawl back,’ is highly relatable. Results may vary, though I’m certain reading Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho will have you looking back at your own dating history, wondering which of those situations might have been improved by a little organ harvesting.” – CK Combs, queer trans writer and community activist, author of an upcoming novel featuring nonbinary youth, ghosts, and an abandoned amusement park

 

“Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho is a book about many things: modern dating, the damaging day-to-day impact of being objectified as a woman of color, the resistance of imposed gender norms in favor of the anti-caretaker, the ache to be seen and loved wholly. But above all, I think Tu’s debut book is about the risks of vulnerability. Tu doesn’t just talk about this, she enacts it—creating a sacred vulnerability with and towards the reader.” – Becca Rae Rose, cross-genre writer and co-founder of KALEIDOSCOPED MAG

 

“This book is utterly compelling: painful in its honesty and searching in its scope, while somehow also brutally funny and fortifying. I am in awe of the nine-tailed fox satiating her hunger through these pages, and you will be, too.” –  Jac Jemc, author of False Bingo and Empty Theatre

 

“The ancient Egyptians erected entire religious systems to praise the humble house-cat’s nine uncanny lives, but let’s not get all orientalist about survival. Besides, I would swap my own survival, luxuriate in sacrifice, spread open my body for Alissa Tu’s nine hungry tails. Confessions of a Modern-Day Kumiho is sex and sass, destructive and indestructible, and if you’re worthy, it will delight in you, one organ—one orgasm—at a time. It thirsts. –  Lily Hoàng, author of Underneath and A Bestiary

 

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About the Author

Born and raised in Olympia, Washington, Alissa Tu is a Vietnamese American writer with work published in Asian American Writers’ Workshop, diaCRITICs, and Honey Literary. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of California – San Diego. Fresh out of messy romance gossip, she’s currently crafting the perfect Vietnamese love letter.