“Unearthing Shadows: Kim Liao Reveals the Haunting Secrets Behind ‘Where Every Ghost Has a Name'”
Sarah Rosenthal: Congratulations on the publication of Where Every Ghost Has a Name! I know this book was more than a decade in the making, and you mention that you had initially started writing about your work in Taiwan on your blog, Girl Meets Formosa. How did you navigate moving from blog writing to a book-length, heavily researched memoir? And how did you arrive at a braided book structure?
Kim Liao: Thanks so much for interviewing me, and that’s a great question about the genesis of this book. To contextualize the blog, this was 2010, the heyday of blogs, and there were so many blogs that became books that became movies — Julie and Julia [was] the success story that was at the forefront of my mind. So there was ambition there, but also a desire to write about my quest in Taiwan, and an interest in writing regularly and documenting the adventures I was having, as well as keeping in touch with friends and family. I say this because the tone of the blog, and its content, started very breezy, but also laid out my goals about learning about the history of the Taiwanese independence movement and my grandfather Thomas.
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