Allison Hong Merrill

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Allison Hong Merrill

Goodreads Author


Born
in 花蓮, Taiwan
Website

Twitter

Genre

Influences

Member Since
January 2012

URL


Allison was born and raised in Taiwan and arrived in the U.S. at age twenty-two as a university student. That's when she realized her school English wasn't much help when asking for directions on the street or opening a bank account. By recording each of the classes she took––including physical education––and reviewing the tape every night for a year, she eventually learned English well enough to earn an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. But please excuse her if she misuses the verb tenses or mixes up the genders in third-person pronouns when she speaks. It's no secret; English is a hard language to learn.

Allison writes in both Chinese and English, both fiction and creative nonfiction, which means she spends a lot of time lo
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Popular Answered Questions

Allison Hong Merrill Stay in a creative mood by reading, scrapbooking, and rearranging furniture.
Allison Hong Merrill I'm simultaneously writing two other books. One of them is the prequel to "Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops" titled "Ninety-Nine Lost Fathers." It's a Chinese f…moreI'm simultaneously writing two other books. One of them is the prequel to "Ninety-Nine Fire Hoops" titled "Ninety-Nine Lost Fathers." It's a Chinese family saga that spans 100 years, starting with a bound-foot girl's matrilocal marriage and ending four generations later with a strong-willed girl's interracial marriage. This book is about how family secrets haunt both the living and the dead, illustrated by the ancestors my family is forbidden to know.

The other project I'm working on is a New Adult novel titled "Six Sage Society." Based on a true story, this book is about a young woman who discovers that she's the heir to the throne of an ancient Chinese imperial court. (less)
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Allison’s Recent Updates

George Saunders
“Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.”
George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone

Jonathan Gottschall
“We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories.”
Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human

Norman Maclean
“We can love completely what we cannot completely understand.”
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Norman Maclean
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
I am haunted by waters.”
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Norman Maclean
“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

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