Gail Tsukiyama

Women of the Silk

Gail Tsukiyama’s father was Japanese; born and raised in Oahu, he witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a child, perched in a tree. Her mother was from Hong Kong. While Gail and her mother took frequent trips to China to see her grandmother, Gail identified as an American while growing up in San Francisco. Her quest to understand her complicated heritage has animated her writing life.

From Women of the Silk:

“Over the years, she had grown as silent as her husband. She had learned to keep all her thoughts to herself. Yu-sung had let go of the spontaneity of her girlhood.”

She was a teenage poet, and won awards for her poetry in college, but only began to consider a literary career during graduate work in creative writing.

At first she concentrated on short stories and poetry, but eventually she wanted to try writing a novel with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Because she chose to start with a multigenerational tale set within the Chinese silk trade, and because she got deeply into writing it before starting again from scratch, it took her five years to write. When she finally received the advance hardcover copy of Women of the Silk, it was a key moment of personal satisfaction. Published in 1991, this unexpected hit launched her writing career.

Tsukiyama credits good timing for her initial success, coming as it did right after Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club. Book publishers were more interested in the work of Asian American women authors than ever before.

Tsukiyama lives in California, in El Cerrito and the Napa Valley. When not writing, she enjoys good red wine, good and bad TV, and shoe shopping.

ALSO RECOMMENDED:

The Language of Threads. Pei, brought to work in the silk house as a girl, has grown into a determined young woman who, in the 1930s, leaves the silk house for Hong Kong.

Sweet MulberryTini

In Women of the Silk, Pei’s family made a living by farming fish and picking mulberry leaves.

1 scoop vanilla ice cream

3 tbsp. vodka

1 tbsp. dried white mulberries

Put ice cream, vodka, and mulberries in a blender and pulse until smooth. Pour into a martini glass. Serves 1.