The story of the Cowherd and the Weaver-Girl (which some may know in its Japanese form as Tanabata) has always appealed to the romantic side of me. Not because of the love story, mind you, but because I was utterly charmed by the idea of people explaining the Milky Way as a bridge of crows spanning the heavens. Living in a tropical city soaked in light pollution and plagued by cloudy skies, I had no idea what the Milky Way looks like from Earth, so I was free to imagine this living celestial architecture any way I wanted. As for my retelling, I wanted to do a version in space, but I also thought telling it in a linear fashion would be dreadfully boring, so I decided to nest stories within stories. It was fun having the actual myth be a pit in the middle of my story that you have to cut through layers of flesh to see.
JY YANG