Harmless Like You is set across New York, Berlin and Connecticut, following the stories of Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and Yuki’s son Jay who, as an adult in the present day, is forced to confront his mother who abandoned him when he was only two years old. The author herself is of Japanese-British-Chinese-American background. This is a keen examination of belonging, of heartlands, of companionship and choice.
“Lyrical and evocative”
– The New York Times
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is a Japanese-British-Chinese-American writer. She has a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently working on a PhD at the University of East Anglia. Her writing has appeared in, among other places, NPR’s Selected Shorts, TriQuarterly, the Tin House Open Bar, the Indiana Review and she is a 2015 Margins Fellow at the Asian American Writers Workshop. She has lived in London, New York, Tokyo, Madison and Norwich.
Novel Writers
Each month we invite a debut novelist to read from and talk about their work in an informal setting. Prior knowledge of the text is not essential. Topics of discussion include theme, structure, inspiration and the craft of writing. These sessions are a great way to discover new writing talent and great books.