Mr. Brian Leung

Short stories by Brian Leung

Sarabande Books, 2004
...
There's some profound writing in Brian Leung's first short story collection: there's a lot of delicate internal monologue and plenty of strong interaction between his troubled characters.But by far the most persistent feel permeating his eleven tales gathered here, is the sense of the storyteller's voice coming from nowhere, for sure.The same is so for people inhabiting Mr. Leung's story-space; there's a sense his characters are going nowhere for sure.

All this is of course no accident.This is a universe without gravity, these are lives lacking anchors, by design.In the short story for which the volume is named, "World Famous Love Acts" (a slyly misleading title, no stupendous love acts actually happen), two sweaty young men take their tired Toyota all the way across the continent but readers never arrive at the New Orleans stage show promised by the story's marquee.Likewise, in "Who Knew Her Best," a perished porn star's showbiz buds all claim in memoriam to have known her well, but it is only her L.A. driver, who once sat on her front steps with her one late evening, without hype, without hustle, who can really recall anything authentic about her, about her disintegrating soul.

Brian Leung presents his weightless world through a wide variety of voices, male and female, young and old, urban and rural, straight and gay.This unsteady platform makes World Famous Love Acts a disorienting journey.Sea-sickness comes to mind.The author's mixed heritage may be part of the explanation.More often than not, colliding chromosomes and competing cultural claims do kids much more damage than good.To call that perspective rootless would be dumb.It's more like a tumble, more like Mr. Leung's suicides in Six Ways to Jump Off a Bridge: " ... in midair ...

When asked about his Chinese/Irish mélange, the author says "I'm extremely interested in divided or diminishing culture.But it took me a while to understand what to do with that interest.

"There is a genuine confusion that goes on in the category of ‘other.'"

Brian Leung was born in San Diego.He received his MFA from Indiana University.He is currently an Assistant Professor at California State University.

-Asian American Literary Award Honorees Suketu Mehta and Brian Leung
...
We'll also be speaking with Suketu Mehta and Brian Leung, honorees at this year's Asian American Literary Awards Ceremony.Suketu Mehta is the author of the nonfiction book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, which chronicles his return to Bombay and his interactions with the criminal underworld, police, exotic dancers, and Bollywood filmmakers.Brian Leung will be honored in the fiction category for his book World Famous Love Acts, a collection of short stories.
...
BRIAN LEUNG lives and writes in Los Angeles.His short story collection, World Famous Love Acts won the Mary McCarthy Award in Short Fiction and the Asian American Literary Award for fiction.He is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge.His fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in Story, Crazyhorse, Grain, The Barcelona Review, Mid-American Review, Salt Hill, Gulf Stream, River City, Runes, The Bellingham Review, The Connecticut Review, and in the short story anthology The Habit of Art

Danuta de Rhodes | Nic Kelman | Brian Leung | Charlie Williams | Melissa P. | Suhayl Saadi | Do the Blind Dream? | The Little White Car | girls | World Famous Love Acts | Deadfolk | One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed | Psychoraag | Do the Blind Dream? by Barry Gifford | The Little White Car by Danuta de Rhodes | girls by Nic Kelman | World Famous Love Acts by Brian Leung | Deadfolk by Charlie Williams | One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed by Melissa P. | Psychoraag by Suhayl Saadi
...
Danuta de Rhodes | Nic Kelman | Brian Leung | Charlie Williams | Melissa P. | Suhayl Saadi | Do the Blind Dream? | The Little White Car | girls | World Famous Love Acts | Deadfolk | One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed | Psychoraag | Do the Blind Dream? by Barry Gifford | The Little White Car by Danuta de Rhodes | girls by Nic Kelman | World Famous Love Acts by Brian Leung | Deadfolk by Charlie Williams | One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed by Melissa P. | Psychoraag by Suhayl Saadi
...
World Famous Love Acts by Brian Leung
...
World Famous Love Acts by Brian Leung: Sarabande Books, U.S., 2004
...
That's life, hey, and Leung captures those moments of clarity superbly.In the case of the night manager, however, change is perhaps possible, but only after a whacko drifter comes charging into his life.
...
Brian Leung: Executing Dexter
...
World Famous Love Acts by Brian Leung

Brian Leung, World Famous Love Acts, Sarabande Books, 2004
...
Brian Leung's recent book of short stories, World Famous Love Acts, is a deft and crafted first collection.Though it initially comes across as overly Straightforward Narrative (several reviews, including one in the Indiana Review and a snarky one on Amazon, have criticized the heavy-handedness of his story endings, suggesting that they wrap up too neatly, that they become too baldly thematic), we found much to like herein.
...
Too, these are mostly conservative stories (as Chris Offutt notes in his Foreword/blurb: "[Leung] gains trust the old-fashioned way-through confidence, craftsmanship, and compassion").

Other titles by Brian Leung
...
Brian Leung
...
"An entire book of good stories. . . . [Leung] gains trust the old-fashioned wayâ€"through confidence, craftsmanship and compassion.There are no shortcuts here, no tricks or gimmicks, no glib patinas to conceal weak underpinnings. . . . This is a book about loss, twined irrevocably with hope, a hope that surges below the surface of all life. . . . Read [it] and see a bold new writer making himself vulnerable on the page.He gives us all hope."â€"Chris Offutt

Born to a Chinese father and Euro-American mother, Brian Leung is a native of California, where he is now an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge.He received an M.F.A in creative writing from Indiana University.

by Brian Leung
...
Leung, a teacher at California State University Northridge and recipient of the Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction has written this collection of well-crafted narratives with unique characters in well-constructed settings.

World Famous Love Acts by Brian Leung, Sarabande Books

Short stories by Brian Leung

Sarabande Books, 2004
...
Brian Leung presents his weightless world through a wide variety of voices, male and female, young and old, urban and rural, straight and gay.
...
Brian Leung was born in San Diego.He received his MFA from Indiana University.He is currently an Assistant Professor at California State University.