Exit, Miss Saigon

David Mura is a poet, writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, critic, and playwright. He is author of several books, including The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives (Minnesota, 2022) and A Stranger's Journey: Race, Identity, and Narrative Craft in Writing and the memoirs Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality, and Identity. He is coeditor, with Carolyn Holbrook, of We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World (Minnesota, 2021). He lives in Minneapolis.

• ContentsIntroduction: A Surrealist Asian in MinnesotaTimeline of EventsPart IDo I Belong Here?Raising a Multicultural Daughter in a Multicultural WorldLetter to a (Former) White FriendSecret ColorsSlowly, ThisThe Asian American RenaissancePart IIArmed with LanguageThe Internment of DesireM. ButterflyAsian American Masculinity: Performing or Not Performing the PatriarchyFragments in Search of Asian American MasculinityRace, History, and My MarriagePart IIIWhat VONA Taught Me (Part I): My Middle YearsWhat VONA Taught Me (Part II): Teaching"Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation"Owning My Asian American BodyActivism, Miss Saigon, and the ArtsConclusion: Writing and the Long GameAppendix: Endnotes to "Fragments in Search of Asian American Masculinity"AcknowledgmentsPublication History

"In this forthright and open-hearted essay collection, David Mura deftly examines politics, psychology, assimilation, masculinity, and the transformative power of friendships and collective action, offering an essential history of Asian American literary arts and culture." —Lisa Ko, author of Memory Piece and The Leavers  "Exit, Miss Saigon is the history of one man's journey from indoctrination to personal enlightenment. Some writers are merely storytellers, but others, like Franz Fanon, Malcolm X, and Toni Morrison, were intellectual freedom fighters. David Mura fits this category and provides a narrative that is thought-provoking, inspirational, and empowering. This book deserves to be shared with all readers." —Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters  "David Mura's compelling retrospective takes us through decades of momentous change and struggle for Asian Americans, and explores the traumatic legacies of Japanese American incarceration, the model minority myth, racial typecasting, and anti-Asian hate in the wake of COVID-19. With unflinching honesty and compelling lyricism, Mura draws valuable lessons from painful histories and urges us to make bold choices for the future." —Josephine Lee, author of Race in American Musical Theater