A small glimpse on writing trauma

Soksreinith Ten, a reporter with Voice of America News, just interviewed me for their English and Khmer News Service. She asked, in a few words what is your novel about? I said it’s about a mother and daughter. They love each other but they can’t tolerate each other. “I thought by 16 I’d be over her,” my character says. The mom is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. Then the reporter and I had this extraordinary conversation about her mom, also a survivor, and they have the same “hard love” as I write about.  She wants to tell her mom’s story; her mom has never talked about the war, “the tears just pour out,” the young reporter said.  She sent me a poem she wrote about her mom. I think one day she’ll write the book she wants to write. Image by image, I told her. Poem by poem.   I wanted to post this trailer about the fictional  daughter of a survivor in the novel we were talking about, Either the Beginning or the End of the World.  Kornnita Chen, Sophia Sturtuvant, Fred Okot Ben, Kirsten Cappy creators of the trailer, thank you.