Gene Yang, creator of American Born Chinese, talks about his NBA nomination over at the First Second blog:
I didn’t - and still don’t - know quite how to react. I can’t say it’s a dream come true because it never even would have occurred to me to dream it. It wasn’t in my reality. I was speechless. For the rest of the day, I watched my e-mail inbox fill with congratulatory messages from friends, relatives, and artists I’ve long admired. I went home and my wife hugged me for a long, long time.
The next day, the reporters came, one from the San Francisco Chronicle and another from the World Journal, a prominent Chinese language newspaper. The reporter from the Chronicle called early in the morning and politely made an appointment. The reporter from the World Journal came into my classroom completely unannounced, before the school day was over, while I was working with students. It reminded me of something a Chinese uncle would do. Maybe this is why some folks think all Chinese people are related - we treat each other like relatives. Luckily it was an MP period (sort of like Study Hall, except with computers) and I was able to speak with her for a while. (And, in case you’re wondering, I wasn’t mad at all. It was an honor. The World Journal is more highly regarded than the New York Times by my parents and their friends.)
October 17th, 2006 at 8:52 am
As I read this while the coffee brewed, I was thinking, “wow, a comic book artist going to play professional basketball! He must be really tall.” (NBA, right?) So I read through the post to see which team picked him up, then went to the First Second blog and found nothing about basketball, wondering what I was missing…then noticed the item in the sidebar menu stating, “AMERICAN BORN CHINESE nominated for THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD”. Duh. See, I had watched “Anatomy of a Giant” about Sun Ming Ming, the world’s second tallest man, a couple nights ago. And I had not had any coffee yet. Duh. My thickheadedness aside, congratulations to Gene Yang for his National Book Award nomination.