April Bonus Episode
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What is the central theme of 'Boring Asian Female'?
Have you been sitting on the fence about signing up for the Beta Reader matchup? Or have you signed up before but haven't yet found your writing soulmates? The next matchup is the last one for the summer, so don't snooze on it. Get matched up with those writing in a similar genre and or time zone so they can critique your work as you critique theirs. Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up for this 3,000 word evaluation. This particular matchup will be open to registrations from now until the 1st of June with the matchup emails going out on the 2nd of June. For more information and to register, go to BiancaMarie.com and go to the Beta Reader matchup page.
and welcome to our show, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. I'm best-selling author Bianca Murray and I'm joined by Cece Lira of Wendy Sherman Associates and Carly Waters of PS Literary. Hi everyone. Today's guest is a debut author whose writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Kansas City Star, Chalkbeat, Era Magazine, and more. She is a graduate of Columbia University. It's my pleasure to welcome Kanwen Xu. Kanwen, welcome to the show.
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I actually listened to this show when I was querying and preparing to query. So it's really exciting for me to kind of be on the other side now. Oh, wow. That's amazing.
How did Kanwen Xu transform personal failure into her narrative?
We love hearing those full circle moments. That's incredible. Well, for our listeners, we are actually going to have Cameron read us her success or query letters shortly. which is always exciting. And we're going to put that in our sub stack. But let me just firstly tell you about the book we're discussing. Those of you who aren't watching on YouTube, I'm holding up the cover of the book. It's called Boring Asian Female, very striking cover. And we're going to link to it on our bookshop.org affiliate page, where if you buy the book there, you can support an independent bookstore and the podcast at the same time. And Yeah, pre-orders, all orders are so important. So please go there to support our authors.
Okay, let me read you the flap copy and then we're going to dive in. Elizabeth Zhang knows her place in the world. She knows she's in the 10th percentile for likability and the 70th percentile for attractiveness, but she's also in the 99th percentile for academics. So when Harvard Law School rejects Elizabeth for not standing out enough, which she knows means she's just another boring Asian female, her carefully constructed life falls apart. What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate at Columbia, got in. At first, she follows her because she's just curious. What Laura orders for lunch, where Laura shops, what Laura's hobbies are, all of these things must contribute to her overall package, what makes her an acceptable, interesting person to Harvard.
But still, Elizabeth can't see it.
What challenges did Kanwen face during the writing process?
The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot at Harvard, a spot she knows she deserves after working so hard, a spot she'll simply have to take back. Guys, this was one of my favorite reads of the year. I couldn't put it down. I'm a menopausal woman who wakes up at 2 a.m. all the time, and this book was my go-to. I just flew through it. So highly, highly recommend, and there's a lot that we are going to discuss. So before we dive into the actual book itself, Carmen, I would love for you to tell us the genesis of the story. I always love knowing where a story idea came from and how it developed from there.
Yeah, so I knew when I started writing that I wanted to write a story that took place at Columbia, my alma mater. And the reason is that it was just such a unique experience with so many different characters, so many characters. people who seemed so confident, but at the same time, really insecure. And it was just at this very transitional point of everyone's lives, where looking back, I'm like, I felt I was trying to find my place in the world. And everyone else was actually trying to find their place in the world as well. But back then, I thought everyone else had it figured out.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central theme of 'Boring Asian Female'?
0:00–1:35
2
How did Kanwen Xu transform personal failure into her narrative?
1:35–3:06
3
What challenges did Kanwen face during the writing process?
3:06–5:55
4
What insights does Kanwen share about writing a morally complex protagonist?
5:55–7:40
5
How did Rea Frey navigate the publishing landscape?
7:40–9:22
6
What are the common mistakes authors make in the publishing process?
9:22–10:49
7
Why is understanding the business side of publishing crucial for authors?
10:49–12:15
8
What advice does Emilie offer for aspiring writers?
12:15–1:27:25