Timber and Lua — Lily Hoang

Timber and Lụa exists in duality as both original, innovative collaboration between Lily Hoàng and Vi Khi Nào and their self-translations of said work. Comprised of ten short experimental stories, Timber and Lụa is written in three different languages: Vietlish, Vietnamese, and English. Similar to Samuel Beckett and Vladimir Nabokov, who translated their own work (from English to French and from Russian to English, respectively), Hoàng and Nào extend that makeshift “tradition” by hybridizing their translation to graft the genetic material of one language (English) and the genetic material of another language (Vietnamese) to produce a new literary diasporic genre. From love story to the speculative to fairy tale, these ten stories accentuate Hoàng and Nào’s dynamic, eccentric range. Timber and Lụa coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Fall of Saigon (1975–2025), as a diasporic literary contribution and commemorative celebration.