Lily Hoang

First there is a door, and it goes knock-knock. Who’s there? Lily HoÀng’s A Knock at the Door peeps through a tiny, distorted keyhole, and on the other side, fairy tales wait—with patience, with malice, with magic.

The micro-tales collected here were generated from sentences or stanzas that were donated by other writers, but this is not a collaborative project. After the original writer donated their words, they had no additional input or participation. The author thanks all these generous and beautiful writers for their gracious trust in this project.

Over a five-year period, Martha Johnson murders her four children, one by one, in order to punish her husband when they argue, but Martha is no ordinary serial killer. She murders her children by using the bulk of her 250-pound body to suffocate them. Unlike other fictionalized true-crime novels, Underneath neither valorizes nor focuses on the specific acts of violence. Instead, it attempts to understand how feelings of powerlessness, the residue of trauma, and the need to find justice in a world that refuses to give a fat body justice finds its only respite through murder.

The simple act of a butterfly flapping its wings, and our journey begins. A tracing of modern day mythologies, Parabola weaves through genres, mathematical formulas, and photographs, all while following the curve of a parabola, stopping at various points to pick up strands of intersections or stories. Lily Hoang s debut novel offers readers tender snapshots of an Asian American girl coming-of-age juxtaposed with the Pythagorean belief in numerology placed right beside a physical manifestation of dark matter contrasted with interactive IQ, personality, and psychological tests. Smart, challenging, sad, and kind, by the end of Parabola, you will have moved through every emotion, and you will end right where you began, with that simple act of a butterfly flapping its wings.

Five New Mexico-based creative writers, each composed a short, image-rich story for this coloring book. These colorful stories use a variety of styles and cultural references, both local and universal. Jamie Figueroa and Lily Hoang bring us fantastical images of giants and monsters. Nasario Garcia pulls us into old-time small-town Norte o fiestas and dark back roads imbued with mystery and magic. Joe Hayes shoots us to the stars and back with a coyote tale, and Melody Sumner Carnahan spins us in circles (while reminding us to keep breathing) with a dizzying array of imagery. When the stories were complete, we invited artists, known to make coloring book style line drawing illustrations based on the stories. Artists who contributed their drawings to this book: Joshua Atlas, Jamison Chas Banks, Rita Bard, Jeff Benham, Crockett Bodelson, Victoria Carlson, Susan Case, Hye Coh, Matthew Chase-Daniel, Lisa de St. Croix, Erin Currier, Donelli J. DiMaria, Clare Dunne, Alexandra Eldridge, Joerael Julian Elliott, Betsy Emil, Andrew Fearnside, Brian Fleetwood, Lisa Flynn, Jason Garcia, Miranda Gray, Holly Grimm, Linda Guenste, Hans Harland-Hue, Nicola Heindl-Watson, Sienna Heinemann, Yubi Kim, Shakti Kroopkin, Celeste LaForme, Mary Lawler, Katherine Lee, David Leigh, Israel Haros Lopez, Nina Mastrangelo, Abby Mattison, Kathleen McCloud, Daniel McCoy, Mary Moegenburg, Sabra Moore, Eliza Naranjo Morse, Aidan Mott, Matthew Mullins, Joel Nakamura, Arlene Ory, Larry Bob Phillips, Mikey Rae, Janet Stein Romero, William Rotsaert, Iren Schio, Rose Simpson, Mark Spencer, Rick Stevens, Laurinda Stockwell, Dianne Stromberg, Linda Swanson, Tricia Tusa, Linda Vi Vona, Erika Wanenmacher, Tracy Cook Wein, Jerry Wellman, Raina Wellman, Gwen Wells, Anastasio Wrobel, Aaron Yazzie, Francesca Yorke, Debby Young, Bette Yozell. Feel free to grab your crayons or markers and color in-between the lines. Or just turn the pages and enjoy the stories and drawings all sprung forth from the imaginations of our colorful local artists.

Winner of the 2015 Essay Collection Competition, Selected by Wayne Koestenbaum. Finalist for PEN USA's Literary Awards in Creative Nonfiction.

"Bound is the bewitching Lilith..." So begins an ancient incantation for protection against the demon Lilith. Lilith, the First Woman, the wife Adam discarded. Lilith, the goddess of storms, the night bird. Lilith, the succubus who haunts men's dreams. Lilith the child-slaying monster, the mother of demons. Lilith the feminist poster girl. Lilith the muse.The stories herein set Lilith free to explore all these aspects. Mike Resnick and Lawrence Schimel portray her as the ultimate shiksa. Nisi Shawl goes looking for her in the savannas of Africa. J. Robert King finds her in the changeling babies of a modern world. Ed Greenwood delivers her in a mysterious and seductive painting. T. L. Morganfield melds Lilith lore with Native American mythology. Jackie Kessler explores her succubus origins. Eirene Donohue twines a handful of Lilith themes into a tale of storm-chased young girl. Within these pages Lilith is a vengeful asteroid, a self-help guru, a divorce lawyer, and much, much more...