This is a personal project.

Readers have asked why I chose not to mention any specific cultural identity of my characters, or in that case, a specific place. I do write about place in one of these stories called "The Last Name". But I felt the need to explain my motivation behind it.

I have always had a very difficult relationship with place or anything that confines me or my characters into a particular ethnicity or identity. I've never had the sense of belonging to any specific country or state or city or even a neighborhood. Hence, I was reluctant to write about any given culture or nationality. Part of it was because I didn't feel entitled to write or talk about places that I've never really felt rooted to, in physicality.

Therefore, returning to "The Last Name" which is one of my very first works of fiction, is disorienting, disarming, discouraging, frustrating and an act of indiscipline on my part. To be honest, I do not feel the need to ever go back and fix this way of my writing. Writing these stories in abstraction is a choice on my part and I strongly stand by it. It is a risk I've taken knowingly and it asserts a sense of freedom in my creativity.

Everything I've ever written has rendered my feelings honestly. The rough edges of my ideas (not language) don't need to be smoothened or neutralised. I've found solace in this imperfection, and I hope my readers do too.