Unsavory Elements: Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China

Shanghai Literary Festival Unsavory Elements Panel

Unsavory Elements: Stories of Foreigners on the Loose in China, the anthology to which I contributed, is finally fully available in the USA via Amazon. It’s a very strong collection, featuring work from some writers with whom you are probably familiar, including Simon Winchester, Susan Conley, Peter Hessler, Deb Fallows, Michael Meyer, Michael Levy, Mark Kitto and Matt Polly.  There are also really moving from writers who were new to me, including Kaitlin Solimine and Susie Gordon. And many others – 28 contributors in total – all pulled together by Tom Carter, who is a master cat herder. There are tales of business ventures gone awry, brothel visits gone bad, family vacations headed off the rail and tender memories about adopted mothers and the search for the perfect dumpling that will soothe a relocated family’s collective soul.

James Fallows of the Atlantic wrote a bit about the book here.

I’m proud to be included in this book and happy that several of the contributors have become my friends since we met in Beijing and Shanghai last March for the book’s launch.

Most of us participated in this massive Reddit AMA, which makes for some pretty interesting reading.