This is my New York City interview with Mary-Lea Awanohara. Mary-Lea writes a fascinating blog called The Displaced Nation.
Before I give you the link to the interview, I would like to tell you how it all came about. It’s worth sharing for its strangeness. Again it demonstrates how connected we all are.
Mary-Lea first wrote to me when I was in Italy and asked if she could interview me for her blog. I looked at her blog briefly and it looked very interesting but at the time I was fully immersed in my Italian studies in San Giovanni Valdarno. As I had an automatic Out of Office reply to my emails, I planned to respond to Mary-Lea when I returned to Melbourne.
My next stop was London. Again I received an email from her. Again I decided to let it sit.
Then when I arrived in New York City, I wrote a blog about my experiences there. And who should live in New York? Mary-Lea. She messaged me on Facebook and we arranged to meet. Not only that, but she chose a restaurant that serves congee (Chinese rice porridge), one of my favourite foods in the world!
I love the way destiny, in all its different forms, brings people together.
And here is the link:
Youth Writer Gabrielle Wang’s Characters Solve Cross-cultural Conundrums with Magic and Aplomb
Serendipity is one of life’s best features! I’m so glad we managed to connect in person, and over congee. It’s soooo much better than e-mail just to be able to chat with someone, particularly someone as inspiring as you are, Gabi! Thank you again for agreeing to meet me, and I see that the interview is doing well on our site. Here’s hoping your books find a market in the U.S. Although we pride ourselves on our multiculturalism, we could certainly use some help in the tolerance area…
ML, I am so glad we met in person too. I think your blog is great. It certainly helps bridge the gap between different cultures.