I want to make a short announcement here due to some issues with a bookshop in the UK.
My book The Lantern and the Night Moths was previously available through Lighthouse Bookshop in Edinburgh, Scotland and a pick for their Women in Translation club this year. However, they recently dropped it from their book club without contacting me.
They stated it was due to the lack of stock availability, but they did not even bother reaching out to me or my publisher about the stock. They claimed that they contacted my publisher but my publisher said he never heard from them. Also, they shared that they knew the book was going to reprint; if so, why not simply reschedule and move it to a later slot, instead of dropping it altogether?
Furthermore, in addition to dropping the book, the bookshop has left my name out as a translator from the book club page for a SECOND TIME. I had corrected them initially when the book club picks were announced and I literally fought the British Museum over their use of my work without credit or permission. Earlier this summer, when I contacted the bookshop about the Women in Translation club, since I was visiting Edinburgh to take part in the Book Fringe festival, they also repeatedly ignored my emails.
Due to the above incidents, I am asking that folks DO NOT order this book or any of my other books through Lighthouse Bookshop, because of their repeated erasure of my work as a translator.
If you are based in the UK and you were planning to read the book for the Women in Translation club, or want to check out this book of translated poetry, please consider ordering it through the wonderful Guanghwa Bookshop in London’s Chinatown. They are the oldest Chinese language bookstore in all of the UK. You can order the book by contacting them on social media or other channels.
If you are based in another region of the world, I try to maintain a list of recommended indie bookshops from which to get the bookstore on my website.
I’d be more than happy for the book to be featured in another book club (whether for literature in translation or another theme) if any organizations would like to work together.
