ABOUT LETTERS FROM DINOSAURS

A penniless father tries to reconnect with his estranged Internet mogul son by penning a letter. A seemingly content Chinese-American couple’s marriage unravels when a friend brings over his new white girlfriend for dinner. A former gaming champion attends a Buddhist funeral in the hometown he abandoned and his life changes forever. The traumatized best friend of a campus shooter becomes homebound by choice for years, testing the patience of his aging parents. A fantasy baseball league email thread goes horribly wrong when one of the members overshares about a family tragedy. A lovestruck college student discovers his father’s involvement in a Madoff-level Ponzi scheme and must decide whether he’s cowardly or courageous in both love and family.

In eleven stories that range from heartfelt to satirical, ‘Letters from Dinosaurs’ is a fresh and complicated portrayal of American Asian lives, exposing the fissures between family, friends, and lovers opened by race, culture, and class.

PRAISE

“We’re big admirers of Leland Cheuk’s fiction, which blends innovative forms with psychological acuity…”—Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“Some of the stories in Leland Cheuk’s new collection rank among the best I’ve read this year…As Cheuk subtly shows in many of these pieces, Asian-Americans live in a kind of cultural limbo in which they are driven to adhere to the dominant, white narrative, but sometimes feel guilty about doing so. That gives the title of the collection an added dimension—more than just borrowing from the opening story, Cheuk seems to be hinting that these ‘dinosaurs’ need to move forward, to stop looking over their shoulders at the asteroid glow of racial mayhem relentlessly chasing after them.” —Tahoma Literary Review

“Leland Cheuk is far and away one of my favorite emerging American writers. His wry wit and acutely observant social humor are always perfectly calibrated to remain humanist and empathetic, never veering into the snarky easiness of self-satisfied hipster irony. His is a shrewd and highly compassionate imagination of a kind that makes you want to not only read him, but to reread him.”–Kris Saknussemm, author of the novels ZANESVILLE, PRIVATE MIDNIGHT, and REVEREND AMERICA

“Daring enough to slay the Model Minority myth, upend tired tropes, and inject a much needed dose of humor and irreverence, Leland Cheuk is the writer Asian American lit has been waiting for.”– Shawna Yang Ryan, author of the novels GREEN ISLAND and WATER GHOSTS

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