East Side Voices with Helena Lee and Will Harris

Literary Friction

Arts

4.9 • 593 Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

This month's show is about East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain. We spoke to journalist Helena Lee about East Side Voices, the anthology of writing she edited that celebrates the diversity of these voices in the UK. We also spoke to poet and writer Will Harris about the poem he contributed and some of the other pieces from the collection, which features writers including Mary Jean Chan, Sharlene Teo, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and Catherine Cho. These essays and poems cover a range of experiences and settings, from the set of Harry Potter to the NHS frontlines, and seek to combat the absence of representation in British culture in which East and Southeast Asian lives are often, to use Salman Rushdie’s words, "visible but unseen". Listen in for readings, music, plus all the usual recommendations. Recommendations: Octavia: Pisti, 80 rue de Belleville by Estelle Hoy Helena: Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda Will: Ultimatum Orangutan by Khairani Barokka Carrie: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/feb-2022-east-side-voices-with-helena-lee-and-will-harris Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: litfriction@gmail.com Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction This episode is sponsored by Picador: https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Literary Friction. I'm Carrie Plitt here as always with my co-host Octavia Bright. Hi, Octavia. How are you?
0:26.7	I'm feeling really good. The sun is out, so everything's fine, basically. I'm working on my fourth chapter at the moment, which is partly a love letter to this particular
0:38.9	stretch of the southwest coastal path that I walked in Cornwall a few years ago, just after I handed
0:44.0	in my thesis. And it was a time of a lot of optimism. And to get back in that headspace,
0:49.5	I'm covering my desk in photographs of the bright blue sea and the soft greenland. And so I there in my brain so yeah I'm in a good place and I'm imagining good things and it feels nice how about you well I'm glad you're good I'm fine I would say uh which is fine no no I'm I'm absolutely I making, I'm chugged my way through the year.
1:15.4	But what I am happy about is that right now on my bedside table, I have a stack of books that I absolutely cannot wait to read.
1:24.7	And do you know that feeling where they're just, I just keep looking over
1:28.0	at them and feeling excited about what they might have in store. Yeah, that's such a good
1:33.4	feeling. And that doesn't always happen. So yeah, that's what I'm feeling good about right now.
1:38.7	But onto the show, today we're very thrilled to have two authors, Helen Ali and Will Harris.
1:45.5	They're here to discuss Eastside Voices, a collection of essays and poems celebrating East and Southeast Asian identity in Britain,
1:52.8	which was curated by Helena and includes a poem by Will.
1:56.3	Featuring other writers like Mary Jean Chan, Rowan Hiseo Buchanan, and Catherine Cho. This is a collection
2:02.5	that covers a range of experiences and settings, from the set of Harry Potter to the NHS front lines.
2:08.1	It also seeks to combat an absence of representation in British culture, in which, to use a
2:13.6	phrase Helen Ali borrows from Salman Rushdie, East and Southeast Asian lives are often
2:18.2	visible but unseen. And it's a collection that seems even more important in the wake of the
2:22.9	rise in anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before we get started, can you tell our
2:28.2	listeners a little more about Will and Helena, Octavia? I sure can, Carrie. Helen Lee is the acting deputy editor of Harper's Bazaar,
2:36.5	where she is responsible for the publication's art and culture content.
2:40.1	She also co-edits the annual magazine Bazaar Art,
2:43.2	celebrating women in the art world,
	...

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