Christie Yant

Can you tell us what inspired this story and how it came about? Anyone familiar with my past publications will know “time” is something I often play with in my stories, whether it’s splitting a person into their various selves at different ages (“Splits”), making my main character age in reverse (“A Fall Backward Through the Hourglass”), or writing a protagonist addicted to nostalgia in pill form (“In the Grip of Yesterday”), to name a few.

On the island of Manhattan, there’s a building out of time. I can’t tell you where it is, exactly. It has an address, of course, as all buildings do, but that wouldn’t mean anything to you. What I can tell you is that the building is called The Oakmont. “What do you see when you look out there, Sarah?” Roger asks. I stand next to one of the windows in his apartment and take in the view. “The sun’s out and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. It’s a perfect summer day.

I have a confession to make: I think I’m burning out on writing “Asian American” literature. I know this is wrong of me. I know all writing is political. I know sharing our stories is an important way for us to work past media stereotypes, find each other, and reconstruct our collective histories. I have reread Babel and On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and the Green Bone Saga over and over, as if by repeated consumption I could etch them beneath my skin.