A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand
Edited by Paula Morris and Alison Wong
(Auckland University Press, $50)
Taking its title from Ya-Wen Ho's translation of a Li Po poem, A Clear Dawn holds all the promise and possibility of its namesake, suggesting a clear way forward for new
voices to be heard and the dawning of greater representation, publication and recognition of a diversity of New Zealand writers.
Naturally the diversity of writers leads to a diversity of content. This is an anthology of creative non-fiction, fiction and poetry with excerpts from novels, previously unpublished works, and published pieces from the last decade. While some writers explore ideas about being Asian, being migrants, being torn between the traditions of family and discovering their true self, others write about being queer, being alone, being young, being old, revenge, jealousy and mass hysteria. It would be impossible to draw any major themes together, although some pieces do seem to talk to each other or nod knowingly in each other's direction.
The pieces in A Clear Dawn are ordered alphabetically by author name, which allows the reader to flick back and forth without missing something in the careful ordering. Author biographies appear at the start of each piece, rather than listed at the back of the book, tying the writer's identity much more closely to their own work, letting them introduce their piece and give the reader something to consider while reading.
In Latika Vasil's introduction to her story "River", she describes her childhood memories of India as "strangely disjointed images – sleeping on the rooftop of my grandmother's house, looking at the stars through a mosquito net; a yellow and black snake floating in floodwaters outside our house in Calcutta – and I'm not even sure these are real or imagined. New Zealand has been home for a very long time."
