Notes and Links to Daniel Tam-Claiborne’s Work

Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial essayist and author of the short story collection What Never Leaves. His writing has appeared in Literary Hub, the Rumpus, SupChina, the Huffington Post, the Shanghai Literary Review, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships and awards from the U.S. Fulbright Program, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, Kundiman, the Jack Straw Writers Program, and the Yiddish Book Center. Tam-Claiborne serves as program director of partnerships and events at Hugo House in Seattle. He holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and is the author of Transplants, a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and longlisted for the 2026 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.

At about 2:30, Daniel provides background on his reading and language life, including formative works and formative teachers

At about 6:40, Daniel talks about inspiring contemporary writers

At about 10:50, Daniel responds to Pete asking about seeds for Transplants; Daniel expands on how he “processes the world through [his] work” and explores ideas of identity and perception

At about 16:35, Pete cites the book’s epigraphs and ideas of transference and ideas of changing places

At about 17:20, the book’s exposition is discussed, and Daniel reflects on ideas of the collective vs. individual, especially with regard to Lin

At about 20:30, Daniel talks about Liz’s frustrations in connecting with others and mindset in moving to her ancestral home of China for teaching

At about 24:50, Daniel talks about Lin and how she deals with her burgeoning relationship with Travis and later ideas of shame and agency

At about 28:00, Liz and her “existential crisis” are discussed and her altruistic and otherwise actions are examined by Daniel

At about 31:20, The two discuss the real-life parallels involving a scene in the book that shows the back-and-forth between North Korea and China

At about 37:00, Pete talks about cultural misunderstandings in the book, and Daniel talks about the dissonance in the Chinese diaspora regarding new waves of Chinese immigrants and assimilation-he emphasizes Liz’s brother, Phil, and his views

At about 39:45, The two reflect on Liz’s budding relationship and growing pains in the beginning days of Covid in Shanghai

At about 41:20, Daniel replies to Pete asking about what Lin finds in Gua, her partner in the westward road trip

At about 45:10, The two reflect on ideas of “foreigners” and a caring nurse and her significance in the book

At about 49:00, Pete talks about feminism and Lin being “in control of her narrative” and ideas of moral clarity

At about 49:50, Daniel expands on Stephen, Liz’s boyfriend, and earlier iterations

At about 51:40, Daniel responds to Pete wondering about the real-life background for the housing complex and organization for which Lin delivered groceries to elderly and isolated people, many of them former internees from the Japanese/Japanese-American internment camps

At about 55:20, The two muse about Liz and her motivations-subconscious or not-in traveling to China

At about 56:40, Daniel talks about the book’s ending and portions of the book as “surprising” to him

At about 59:00, Pete and Daniel reflect on Daniel’s writing the book only a few years after the beginning of the Covid pandemic and the balance between urgency and perspective

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Please tune in for Episode 338 with Adam H. Johnson, a media analyst and co-host of the Citations Needed podcast. His book is an incredibly important accounting of the malfeasance, whitewashing, and misdirection of so much of the media that has enabled the tragedies of Gaza.

The episode airs on April 21, Pub Day for How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza.

Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.

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