Most Popular Books by Jessica Hagedorn

Jessica Hagedorn has transformed her bestselling novel about the Philippines during the reign of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos into an equally powerful theatrical piece that is a multi-layered tour de force. As Harold Bloom writes, "Hagedorn expresses the conflicts experienced by Asian immigrants caught between cultures . . . she takes aim at racism in the U.S. and develops in her dramas the themes of displacement and the search for belonging." Jessica Hagedorn is a performance artist, poet, novelist and playwright, born and raised in the Philippines. Her novels include Dogeaters (Penguin 1990) which was nominated for a National Book Award and The Gangster of Love (Penguin 1996); a short story collection, Danger and Beauty (City Lights 2002).

One of Jessica Hagedorn''s most daring novels—“a deft and complex tale of corruption, fealty, and integrity” (The Baltimore Sun) In a Philippines of desperate beauty and rank corruption, two seemingly unrelated events occur: the discovery of an ancient lost tribe living in a remote mountainous area and the arrival of a celebrity-studded, American film crew, there to make an epic Vietnam War movie. But the lost tribe may be a clever hoax and the Hollywood movie seems doomed as the cast and crew continue to self-destruct in a cloud of drugs and ego. As the consequences of these events play out, four unforgettable characters—a wealthy, iconoclastic playboy; a woman ensnared in the sex industry; a Filipino-American writer; and a jaded actor—find themselves drawn irrevocably together in this lavish, sensual portrait of a nation in crisis.

A bold new novel about the intersection of art, love, fame, and money from the acclaimed author of Dogeaters. Jessica Hagedorn''s edgy and entertaining new novel centers on the lives of two women who are neighbors in Manhattan''s West Village. Mimi Smith is a filmmaker of low-budget slasher movies in search of new material. Her neighbor Eleanor Delacroix is a legendary writer of erotic fiction, now nearing eighty and addicted to cocaine and gin. Their personal and artistic lives begin to collide in unexpected ways as Eleanor grieves over the recent death of her live-in lover, the renowned painter Yvonne Wilder, and as Mimi deals with the challenges presented by her newly sober brother Carmelo; her drug-dealing boyfriend, who has mysteriously disappeared; and her wayward fourteen-year-old daughter, Violet. Looming over all these characters is the ghost of Agnes-an "illegal" and cousin of Mimi''s who might have been murdered by her New Jersey employers. Toxicology is a dark yet playful exploration of money, desire, mortality, and the connection between creativity and self-destruction.

More than a decade after its initial publication, the groundbreaking anthology Charlie Chan Is Dead remains the best available source for contemporary Asian American fiction. Edited by acclaimed novelist and National Book Award nominee Jessica Hagedorn, Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home in the World brings together forty-two fresh, fascinating voices in Asian American writing—from classics by Jose Garcia Villa and Wakako Yamauchi to exciting new fiction from Akhil Sharma, Ruth Ozeki, Chang-Rae Lee, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Monique Truong. Sweeping in background and literary style, from pioneering writers to newly emerging voices from the Hmong and Korean communities, these exceptional works celebrate the full spectrum of Asian American experience and identities, transcending stereotypes and revealing the strength and vitality of Asian America today.

The debut issue of Your Impossible Voice features new work from Guggenheim Fiction Fellow Jessica Hagedorn set in San Francisco''s gritty Tenderloin District, new poems from Pushcart Prize winner Gillian Conoley, newly translated work from award-winning Salvadoran author Horacio Castellanos Moya, and poetry from Oakland''s own Cave Canem Winner and California Book Awards Finalist Arisa White. Other notable writers appearing in issue one include Pattie McCarthy, Stacey Levine, Peter Kline, Alejandra Costamagna, Aisha Ahmad, Christopher Hennessy, Steve Davenport, Alvin Lu, Colette DeDonato, Mathew Roberson, Daniel Borzutzky, Abeer Hoque, Lisa Williams, and Joe Wenderoth.

College was supposed to be a time of excitement and freedom. For one young woman, however, it became the source of entrapment when her anxiety disorder spiraled out of control and threatened to end her life. Desperate for a way out, she turned to an unusual place for help and ended up discovering the one thing that would allow her to find happiness...a parrot named Ben. Through the challenges and laughter of living with a parrot, Jessica found a way to live life once again.