{"id":35882,"date":"2017-07-16T11:14:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-16T17:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=35882"},"modified":"2018-09-22T20:03:05","modified_gmt":"2018-09-23T02:03:05","slug":"read-local-first-michael-mejia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/read-local-first-michael-mejia\/","title":{"rendered":"READ LOCAL First: Michael Mejia"},"content":{"rendered":"

READ LOCAL FIRST\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah\u2019s literary writers. 15 Bytes regularly offers works-in-progress and\/or recently published work by some of the state\u2019s most celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction and memoir.<\/p>\n

Today, we feature Salt Lake City-based\u00a0Michael Mejia<\/strong>\u00a0and an excerpt from his forthcoming book\u00a0TOKYO<\/em>. In an interview with\u00a0The Collagist<\/em><\/a>\u00a0Mejia explains that\u00a0TOKYO\u00a0(Fiction Collective 2)<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is a nonfiction-fiction hybrid (more the latter than the former) in which he travels to Tokyo, to visit Tsukiji, the largest fish market in the world, and other places that appear in the first two of three novellas that make up the book. His experience there becomes an \u201copportunity to reflect on lingering questions about authenticity and appropriation, about the very different aesthetics of the first two novellas, and about my long-term preoccupation with Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

So grab your favorite cup of joe and enjoy the work of Michael Mejia!<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Excerpt from\u00a0TOKYO
\nby Michael Mejia<\/em><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

A slit in the body\u2014passage for the experienced hand\u2014her father\u2019s hand\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Entrance\u2014or exit\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Are they male or female\u2014these fish\u2014bellies sliced open\u2014gills cut out with a short sword\u2014on the deck of whatever ship landed them\u2014in whatever sea\u2014harvested\u2014fins and tails sliced away\u2014sometimes also heads\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Bodies sheathed in frost\u2014mist curling around them\u2014arranged orderly across the auction floor\u2014these tuna\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Buyers huddle with auctioneers\u2014her father explains\u2014inquiring about each one\u2019s provenance\u2014asking for a little more\u2014a hint\u2014a tip\u2014any signs of trouble\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Reaching into that wound\u2014that unctuous slit\u2014to touch the fat\u2014examining the surface for flaws\u2014signs of a damaging struggle\u2014hints of the internal burn that turns the thick flesh soft\u2014watery\u2014white\u2014excavating the tail end with his hand tool\u2014his single-clawed tekagi\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

He extracts a chunk of flesh\u2014rolls it between thumb and forefinger\u2014performing for her\u2014shines his flashlight on her face to make her smile\u2014then on the meat\u2014pops the scrap in his mouth\u2014makes some notes about color\u2014oil\u2014translucence\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

The girl\u2014ten\u2014maybe eleven\u2014wearing galoshes like everyone else\u2014standing in the wet\u2014scuffing through blood\u2014pink galoshes\u2014free from school because it\u2019s Friday\u2014the day before Children\u2019s Day\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Because he wants her to see this\u2014or she wants to see this\u2014or they have no choice\u2014no other option\u2014because school is out\u2014and her mother is\u2014where?<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

At work\u2014home\u2014away\u2014gone\u2014gone back to America\u2014lost\u2014just another body\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Or\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

They wanted her\u2014the girl\u2014to see\u2014to show her these bodies\u2014to show her what takes her father away while she\u2019s sleeping\u2014the source\u2014or one source\u2014of their food\u2014of her home\u2014her comfort\u2014of all that she knows\u2014all they share as a family\u2014all her life\u2014for as long as she remembers\u2014since before she was born\u2014the watery\u2014the bloody\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Could she know this?\u2014the moment of her beginning?<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

To imagine home as a body\u2014this maimed, half-frozen body on the floor\u2014at her feet\u2014to equate them\u2014for the first time\u2014this is that\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

The dirty\u2014the sordid\u2014this world of buying and selling\u2014this is home, she thinks\u2014this fish\u2014this body\u2014this is my jacket\u2014this fish\u2014my galoshes\u2014doll\u2014bed\u2014book\u2014this is me\u2014us\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Around noon is when it gives him back\u2014this world\u2014when it relinquishes him\u2014back into light\u2014into air\u2014his bedtime the same as hers\u2014even earlier\u2014for now\u2014for a few more years, he says\u2014before you\u2019re up all night with me\u2014with a tutor\u2014cramming\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

She doesn\u2019t want to think about it\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

To imagine herself inside\u2014at home in there\u2014this fish\u2014as it had been\u2014at the beginning\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Is it male or female\u2014this slit-open body?<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Working her way out\u2014into air\u2014burrowing\u2014oh\u2014eating her way through the soft flesh\u2014its translucence\u2014otoro\u2014otoro\u2014the snap of its skin\u2014opening its scaled surface for her\u2014from the inside\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

To imagine herself in another\u2014as she was in Mother\u2014the watery world\u2014the bloody\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Little fish, they say they called her\u2014before she was born\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Did he see her\u2014see her coming\u2014naked\u2014face almost entirely covered with blood?<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Or was he here\u2014at Tsukiji\u2014one hand inside\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Can she\u2014could she remember it\u2014if she tried?\u2014that memory of being born\u2014stored somewhere in her\u2014in her flesh\u2014a little fish\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Now here in pink galoshes\u2014standing again in water and blood\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

What her father knows about them\u2014these bodies\u2014how he sees them\u2014as potential and defect\u2014kilos of valuable flesh\u2014translucent\u2014the thing that precedes food\u2014the perfect fish\u2014the perfect shape\u2014the perfect\u2014flashing through his head\u2014information in flesh\u2014his strange power\u2014strange sight\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

And how he looks at her sometimes\u2014little fish\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

But also taste and texture\u2014that fish in him\u2014that flesh\u2014in every part\u2014is him\u2014and her, too\u2014this is that\u2014that flesh is mine\u2014that translucence\u2014the underneath\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

This room will be empty, he says\u2014every body sold in seconds\u2014gone\u2014wheeled away\u2014then back again tomorrow\u2014but new\u2014the same but different\u2014kilos and kilos of flesh\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Still his little fish\u2014for a while longer\u2014for a few more years\u2014until she loses her tail, he says\u2014becomes fully herself\u2014a young woman\u2014ippanjin\u2014an ordinary person\u2014an outsider\u2014like any other visitor\u2014gaijin, he calls that woman\u2014gaikokujin\u2014not his but another man\u2019s\u2014not Tsukiji\u2019s\u2014not anymore\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

She doesn\u2019t want to think about it\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Handbells ringing\u2014the auctioneers step onto their footstools chanting what\u2019ll you pay what\u2019ll you pay\u2014each in his own manner\u2014the buyers\u2014her father\u2014making laconic gestures\u2014the same every day\u2014index finger and thumb\u2014claw\u2014fist\u2014wagging hand\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

The winning bid written right on the tuna\u2019s skin\u2014in black ink\u2014as if on mulberry paper\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

More than ten years ago Sadohara saw that girl\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Back in early Heisei\u2014the day before Children\u2019s Day\u2014the first time\u2014he\u2019s sure\u2014that he saw himself in another\u2014as another\u2014not dressed in her skin\u2014as if it were a costume\u2014but in the very flesh\u2014a young woman emerging unsteadily\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

This is that\u2014<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

And then catching his father\u2019s dark eye\u2014Serizawa Sensei watching him watching the girl\u2014as if making the same calculations\u2014connecting the same points with the same lines\u2014as if completing some complex equation in his head\u2014<\/h4>\n

#<\/p>\n

Michael Mejia<\/strong>\u00a0is the author of the novels\u00a0TOKYO<\/em>\u00a0(forthcoming 2018) and\u00a0Forgetfulness\u00a0<\/em>(both published by Fiction Collective 2), and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including\u00a0AGNI<\/em>,\u00a0DIAGRAM<\/em>,\u00a0Notre Dame Review<\/em>,\u00a0Angels of the Americlypse<\/em>, and\u00a0My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me<\/em>. He has received a Literature Fellowship in Prose from the NEA and a grant from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation. Editor-in-Chief of\u00a0Western Humanities Review<\/em>\u00a0and co-founding editor of\u00a0Ninebark Press<\/a>, he teaches creative writing at the University of Utah. You can read a second interview of Mejia\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

READ LOCAL FIRST\u00a0is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah\u2019s literary writers. 15 Bytes regularly offers works-in-progress and\/or recently published work by some of the state\u2019s most celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction and memoir. Today, we feature Salt Lake City-based\u00a0Michael Mejia\u00a0and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 03:38:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38117,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35882\/revisions\/38117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}