Elynia is a lyrically-charged debut that dissects the moments that make up the lives of its interrelated characters. The title story examines four separate generations of nameless characters whose varied struggles unfold in a kaleidoscope of human need. An immigrant shoe-man works away his life in a dying town, witnessing his son wrongly arrested by a man whose shoes he regularly shines. And that son watches his friend betray the memory of a departed mother by stealing her now-sacred makeup for a drunken joke. That friend then marries a waitress who secretly loves another man who is perpetually stuck atoning for his past by meticulously refurbishing a house. The atoner was once a painter whose works were rejected by his one love, the granddaughter of the woman who boards the hapless shoe-man after a fire takes everything from him. Being the only one named, Elynia paradoxically emerges as the greater obscurity that envelopes the nameless yet distinguished

This is a collection of essays, poems, and interviews that explores the interrelations among Pacific, Asian, and continental U.S. identities and literatures.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Witches have generated fear and fascination down through the centuries. From a timeless coven gathering on All Hallow's Eve to an old woman brewing up the promise of love, to a witch and her cat with the power to rewrite history, here are 32 stories both legendary and modern-day.