Also, although the great majority of the letters I've received from Hmong...

Also, although the great majority of the letters I've received from Hmong readers have been positive, most of the negative ones have criticized me for telling a story that was not mine to tell. I am no lover of identity politics; I believe that anyone should be allowed to write about anyone. Still, I would have harbored the same proprietary resentment had I been they. It was exactly how I felt thirty years ago, when women's voices were harder to hear because men were drowning them out. Now that young Hmong writers are starting to publish-including Mai Neng Moua, who edited a landmark literary anthology called , and Kao Kalia Yang, who wrote a fierce, sad memoir called -I am happy to shut up and listen. I hope is settling into its proper place not as the book about the Hmong but as a book about communication and miscommunication across cultures.

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