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Mandy-Suzanne Wong

@mandysuzannewong.bsky.social
396 followers 354 following 153 posts

Author, THE BOX, DAUGHTER OF MOTHER-OF-PEARL @graywolfpress.bsky.social www.mandysuzannewong.com 🌊

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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Still catching up with the endlessly fleeing scroll… What’s that wee blue book I see turned out at Typewronger’s 10 July grand reopening at Bruntsfield Links? The Box was somewhere around, too. Thanks for giving snaily books a home! @graywolfpress.bsky.social
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Catching up on social media after a break… A very warm thank you to Kristin White at Long Story Short and Mikaela Ian Pearman at Bermuda’s Royal Gazette for including Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl in their Ultimate Summer Reading List! @graywolfpress.bsky.social www.royalgazette.com/arts-enterta...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl is "starry with devotion, decked out in scientific nomenclature so specific it feels like its own love language...Every part of this book astonishes." Shivanee Ramlochan, CARIBBEAN BEAT @novelniche.bsky.social @graywolfpress.bsky.social 🙏💙🏝️ shorturl.at/qR6Av
caribbean-beat.com
Book buzz | Reviews (Jul/Aug 2026) | Caribbean Beat Magazine
This month’s reading picks from the Caribbean, with reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan of The Pugilist and the Sailor by Nadia Ragbar; Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl by Mandy-Suzanne Wong; P FKN R: How Bad Bu...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler bring us key selections from Vasily Grossman’s WWII reportage in FROM THE FRONT LINE @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. Some thoughts from me in ASYMPTOTE on their gripping translation from the Russian. www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/06...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
ANIMAL SPIRAL, a collaborative novel by Luis Othaniel Rosa and colleagues, translated by Katie Marya, is a mind-blowing read. My review is up in ASYMPTOTE. @charcopress.com www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/06...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Don’t miss the first English translation of celebrated Togolese novelist Sami Tchak, by @jmz.bsky.social! Such wonderful work. My thoughts in Asymptote Journal: www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/06...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
It's a terrific month for new lit in translation! I'm delighted to have 4 new revs up in ASYMPTOTE: unmissable books from Togo, Senegal, Puerto Rico, & Stalin's Soviet Union. 📚📚 www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/06...
asymptotejournal.com
What’s New in Translation: June 2026 - Asymptote Blog
The latest from Germany, Puerto Rico, Togo, Senegal, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Uruguay, South Korea, China, and the Faroe Islands!
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New York Review Books @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
"Grossman's remarkable elasticity of perspective sometimes unsettled his editors; in a single article, he could criticize grand ideas while sympathizing intensely with every living being...." @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social on Vasily Grossman's war reportage (From the Front Line).
asymptotejournal.com
What’s New in Translation: June 2026 - Asymptote Blog
The latest from Germany, Puerto Rico, Togo, Senegal, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Uruguay, South Korea, China, and the Faroe Islands!
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
THE BOX rears its faceless headless head again at Typewronger Books, Edinburgh, on 27 May 2026 at 7 p.m. BST! Reams of gratitude to @typewronger.bsky.social for this opportunity. 🖤📦❄️🐌 Registration is free. @graywolfpress.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...
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Two Lines Press @twolinespress.com · 18/05/2026
Mandy-Suzanne Wong writes that Carvalho's stories collected in AND HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?, in Margaret Jull Costa's translation, "listen in on the unacknowledged suffering of women wasting away in domestic servitude." Read the full review here! www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/05...
asymptotejournal.com
What’s New in Translation: May 2026 - Asymptote Blog
New work from Brazil, Portugal, Tunisia, Cuba, France, China, Japan, Czechia, Norway, Sweden, Spain, and Romania!
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Graywolf Press @graywolfpress.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
We are thrilled that TAIWAN TRAVELOGUE has been announced as the winner of the 2026 International Booker Prize! Congratulations to author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translator Lin King, and our publishing partners in the UK, And Other Stories 🎉 thebookerprizes.com/internationa...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
My review of Margaret Jull Costa’s pitch-perfect translation of And How Have You Been?, a perceptive collection of short stories by Maria Judite de Carvalho, is up in Asymptote. www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/05... @twolinespress.com
cover: And How Have YOU Been? by Maria Judite de Carvalho
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Elise Myslinski @wizardofclaws.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
You won't want to miss today's interview with Kathryn Eddy and @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social on their new book, Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl! #booksky #vegan #animalliberation
myselise.substack.com
Interview: Mandy-Suzanne Wong & Kathryn Eddy
On aquatic invertebrates, artistic advocacy, and rethinking animals
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Kathryn Eddy, illustrator of Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl, is a longtime collaborator, so I'm tentacularly excited about our interview with @wizardofclaws.bsky.social. We talk artistic animal advocacy, how to sculpt a jellyfish, & more. @graywolfpress.bsky.social myselise.substack.com/p/interview-...
Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl coverstarfish multidimensional collage by Kathryn Eddy
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Thank you so much for engaging with our work, Elise!
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Belated though it be: so much gratitude to @orionmagazine.bsky.social for publishing my little piece about Bermudian cephalopods in their latest issue. It’s a true honor to be part of this publication. @graywolfpress.bsky.social orionmagazine.org/article/a-pl...
orionmagazine.org
A Place Beyond Visibility - Orion Magazine
"Beyond this place, was there another into which the squids had vanished?"
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Two Lines Press @twolinespress.com · 21/04/2026
For Asymptote, @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social calls the novel, "A story of love in all its capacities, bolstering gentle and perilous political resistance which takes the form of living, warm-blooded ontologies." www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/04...
asymptotejournal.com
What’s New in Translation: April 2026 - Asymptote Blog
New titles from Mexico, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, Chile, Egypt, Cameroon, France, Slovenia, Austria, and Argentina!
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Two Lines Press @twolinespress.com · 21/04/2026
Happy happy publication day to Juliana Leite's EXEMPLARY HUMANS, translated by Zoë Perry! www.twolinespress.com/shop/books/e...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Tuesday, 21 Apr, 5 pm EST: Reading with Ida Stewart & @katnuernberger.bsky.social, hosted by @williamwoolfitt.bsky.social for Lee University Writers’ Series. Join us! @perugiapress.bsky.social @graywolfpress.bsky.social @sarabandebooks.bsky.social Teams link at www.mandysuzannewong.com/events
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Two Lines Press @twolinespress.com · 15/04/2026
"Affecting, contemplative, and unpretentiously good-humored novel. . . . A story of love in all its capacities, bolstering gentle and perilous political resistance which takes the form of living, warm-blooded ontologies." 💚
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
My review of Juliana Leite’s intimate and philosophical novel Exemplary Humans, translated from Portuguese by Zoë Perry, is up in Asymptote! @twolinespress.com asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/04...
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Perugia Press @perugiapress.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
On April 21 at 5pm ET, Ida Stewart, Kathryn Nuernberger & Mandy-Suzanne Wong will read for Lee University’s Writer’s Series in a virtual round-robin reading. Teams link at Linktree. @idastewart.bsky.social @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social @katnuernberger.bsky.social @williamwoolfitt.bsky.social
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
I’m most grateful to Robert Cowie at University of Hawaii for reading Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl & writing a blurb for it in Tentacle, Newsletter of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Mollusc Specialist Group. Wow! 🐌🐌🐌 @graywolfpress.bsky.social www.hawaii.edu/cowielab/Ten...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
21 Apr at 5 pm EST, Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl will participate online in a book-to-book convo w HELD by @katnuernberger.bsky.social & GLOSS by Ida Stewart. Thanks to @williamwoolfitt.bsky.social for the invite! @graywolfpress.bsky.social @sarabandebooks.bsky.social @perugiapress.bsky.social
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
A wonderful, heartwarming and empowering event. Huge thanks to Long Story Short, St. George's, for inviting me to read from Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl at Bermuda's HERStory Festival! @graywolfpress.bsky.social
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
New releases from @graywolfpress.bsky.social are 15% off just now at Bookshop.org USA thru 29 Apr 2026, including my wee book, Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl. bookshop.org/lists/new-bo...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
I’m so grateful to Long Story Short Bookshop for inviting me to read from Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl at Bermuda’s HERstory Festival next Saturday, 28 March, in St. George! My first reading ever in my wee birth country. Schedule TBA at www.wrcbermuda.com/events/herst.... @graywolfpress.bsky.social
wrcbermuda.com
HERstory Women’s History Month Festival — Women's Resource Centre Bermuda
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Mark Haber is one of my top literary idols. Some of my best experiments were inspired by his. Every one of his books invites close rereading and re-rereading. So excited for ADA!
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Grateful to Annelie Hyatt & ACCENT ACCENT for this review of Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl: "a work of beauty, imagination, & depth...which suggests that a new code of justice must rely on compassion, instead of identification." @graywolfpress.bsky.social magazine.accentaccent.com/posts/review...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
My belated but profound thanks to @literaryhub.bsky.social for running this excerpt from Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl. 🩵🌊 @graywolfpress.bsky.social
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Harare Review of Books @hararereview.com · 15/02/2026
My latest for @thecontinent.org: on Osvalde Lewat's The Aquatics, tr. by Maren Baudet-Lackner.
A screenshot from The Continent. Text reads:

TC BOOK REVIEW
BY JACQUELINE NYATHI

Seeing ourselves in inconvenient mirrors
Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat forces us to face ourselves in her intense novel.

OSVALDE LEWAT'S debut novel The Aquatics (translated by Maren Baudet-Lackner) reads at first like the usual tired satire about African countries. A place called Zambuena; the Old Man, whose influence is felt everywhere; a bloated Official Party with bloated officials; a culture of terror and repression. But then the focus sharpens on the stifling life of Katmé, wife of an ambitious, rising political star who's the prefect of Akriba. Katmé is managing a staff of servants, eating with fine silverware, and determinedly ignoring her own demon: the death of her mother 20 years ago.
Everything changes when a foreign company is contracted to build a road that plans to pass over her mother's grave.
Her canny husband seizes on this as an opportunity to advance his career. The collateral damage of the manoeuvrings falls on Katmé's gay best friend and protégé, Samy. Naturally, homosexuality is illegal in Zambuena - what will people say when they find out the prefect's wife supports a person like that?
The Aquatics morphs quickly from satire to horror. What happens to Samyis unspeakable - and, as Lewat makes clear, everyone is responsible. It overshadows Katmé's own painful journey back to herself, away from the bubble in which she enclosed herself -- one that will be familiar to many middle-class Africans -- in the face of nightmarish inequality.
There's little redemption - except for Katmé's feminist (re)awakening, which is heartening. In contrast, the brutality, a reality for gay people across so much of Africa, is sobering. It's hard to ignore how similar Katmé is to most of us: living obliviously, caring only about our own comfort. If the Aquatics of the novel are monsters, then perhaps so are we all.
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
THE AQUATICS, a novel by Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat, translated from the French by Maren Baudet-Lackner, is lush, courageous, and disturbing. Some brief thoughts from me on Goodreads and Substack. @coffeehousepress.bsky.social substack.com/@mandysuzann...
substack.com
Mandy-Suzanne Wong (@mandysuzannewong)
This novel by Cameroonian filmmaker Osvalde Lewat, translated from the French by Maren Baudet-Lackner, is lush, courageous, and disturbing. The protagonist, who is both highly sensitive and willfully ...
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Barbara J. King @bjking.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Still thinking about this book, and was so happy to review it, @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social! #books #Booksky #naturewriting #invertebrate
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity, @pw.org!
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
“Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl displays radical thinking at its critical heights.” Thank you so much for this shoutout, @bocaslitfest.bsky.social! @graywolfpress.bsky.social trinidadexpress.com/features/loc...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Geetanjali Shree’s characters and dancing prose are always a delight! Some thoughts from me in ASYMPTOTE on THE ROOF BENEATH THEIR FEET, translated from Hindi by Rahul Soni. @andotherstories.bsky.social www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/02...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Next week!
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Urszula Honek’s collection of dark stories, WHITE NIGHTS, translated from the Polish by Kate Webster & longlisted for the Intl Booker Prize, are quietly piercing – & now available to US readers from @twolinespress.com. Here’s my review in ASYMPTOTE. asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/02...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Stopped by the fabulous @typewronger.bsky.social in Edinburgh for the first time today, met the amazing Tee, adopted a wee origami dragon, & bought zines by Heidi Clark plus a book about Raffaella della Olga, who uses typewriters to create brilliant abstract images. @yalebooks.bsky.social
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
It was a pleasure to spend time with AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF COTTON – a magnificent documentary novel by Cristina Rivera Garza, translated polyphonically from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney – and to write about it for ASYMPTOTE. @graywolfpress.bsky.social www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2026/02...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
I’m delighted as ever to have 3 reviews up in Asymptote’s "What’s New In Translation" column for Feb 2026. asymptotejournal.com/blog/new-in-...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Thank you so much @diversishelf.bsky.social for featuring Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl in issue 85! diversishelf.beehiiv.com/p/diversishe...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Thank you @pw.org for including me in Literary MagNet! It was a lot of fun to talk about some of the great literary magazines I’ve had the honor to work with. www.pw.org/content/lite... @graywolfpress.bsky.social @diggingpress.com @new-sinews.bsky.social @talkvomit.bsky.social
pw.org
Literary MagNet: Mandy-Suzanne Wong
The prose writer Mandy-Suzanne Wong highlights journals that have published some of her surprising, emotive essays on mollusks including Digging Press Journal and Black Warrior Review.
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Batdog @jeffreyschmeffrey.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
As the slow poke diver who happily hovers over marine invertebrates while others look for sharks or whatever I can't wait to get a copy of this
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Graywolf Press @graywolfpress.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Happy pub. day to @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social's DAUGHTER OF MOTHER-OF-PEARL, seventeen ingenious essays devoted to snails’ and aquatic invertebrates’ uncanny ways of living 🐌🐙🪼🐚 Pick up a copy from your local indie bookstore today! www.graywolfpress.org/books/daught...
“Mesmerizing. . . . Relentlessly empathetic, these essays reframe nonhuman beings as individuals worthy of respect. Readers will be moved.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“A passionate paean to life’s wonders.”
—KIRKUS

“[Mandy-Suzanne Wong] has made sea snails totally present on the page, magically uncurling their opaque inner worlds, making them resonant subjects of marvel and love. . . . Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl is up there with some of my favorite animal writing of the past decade.”—Ania Szremski, 4COLUMNS

“Wong’s investigations undulate, beckoning an embrace of the unknowable, and with it a call to better coexistence.”—ORIONThe cover of Mandy-Suzanne Wong's "Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl" shows a photographic collage of sea life, with an ocean-blue rectangle in the center with the title and author's name.
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
It’s publication day for Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl!! Huge thanks to Yuka Igarashi for helping it make sense. Thank you, Kathryn, for lending your incredible multitalents to the illustrations. Thank you, Graywolf, for being THE BEST PUBLISHER EVER!! 🐌🦑🐙🐚🪸🌊 www.graywolfpress.org/books/daught...
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
DOMOP is almost here. 🐌 17 Feb 2026 @graywolfpress.bsky.social 🌊 www.graywolfpress.org/books/daught... 🐌🦑🐙🐚🪸🌊
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
I’ll have the honor of discussing, at NYU SCRIBE’s Lecture Series, 6 Mar, 4 pm EST on Zoom: Bermuda, books (including Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl & The Box), publishing, elasticizing English, & rethinking “heritage.” @graywolfpress.bsky.social Free registration: engage.nyu.edu/event/12206840
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Ania Szremski at 4Columns calls Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl "fiercely imaginative and poem-like, though technically nonfiction (speculative nonfiction, perhaps?), essays...[that make] sea snails totally present on the page." 🙏 @graywolfpress.bsky.social 4columns.org/szremski-ani...
4columns.org
Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl
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Mandy-Suzanne Wong @mandysuzannewong.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
“How might we thread the needle between devising open-ended questions to learn more and filling in the blanks with images generated by a poetical human brain?” Huge thanks to Barbara J. King for this review of Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl! @graywolfpress.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Imagining the rich lives of invertebrates
A writer’s evocative meditations invite readers to consider the often-overlooked creatures on their own terms
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