LIVE! #72
7 September 2025
Agenda
- Why We're Here
- Literary Forensics
- - What do I bring?
- - What do I feel?
- - What do I notice?
- - What do I study?
- Next Month's Reading & Study
Why We're Here
We Writers want to improve our craft
by Reading like a Writer
through Literary Forensics
we learn from each other
Roundtable Rules
Always refer back to the book
We practice active listening & serendipity
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion
Always refer back to the book
Meet today's author: Rachel Khong
- Born in Malaysia to Chinese-Malay parents, Khong's family moved to Southern California at age 2.
- Wrote her first story about a goldfish at age 6.
- English degree from Yale, MFA from University of Florida.
- Managing Editor of Lucky Peach magazine, and founder of The Ruby, a co-working and social space for women, non-binary authors, and artists in San Francisco's Mission District.
- Author of two novels: Goodbye, Vitamin (2017), and Real Americans (2024).
- Lives in LA with her spouse, Eli Horowitz.
- "I write first thing in the morning, with a single cup of black coffee. Usually I’ll set a timer for one hour and work without internet or distraction. I try to hit a target of at least 1,000 words per day, though sometimes it’s much more and sometimes it’s much less. If I’ve written even a few words, I count it a success. I feel worst on the days I don’t write at all, so I try to avoid that feeling whenever possible."
"Whenever I start a book, I’m trying to do something that I don’t really know I can do.”
—Rachel Khong
What do I feel?
What in the book elicited that feeling?
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but every conclusion should be questioned
We practice serendipity
- nothing is too crazy
Always refer back to the book
What do I notice?
- • Language and Grammar
- • Context
- • Point of view
- • Voice
- • Character development
- • Horizontal structure
- • Pacing
- • Layering of themes
- • Overall effect
Writing Real Americans
- Started writing Lily's section in December, 2016, thinking it would be a short story.
- In the aftermath of the election, Khong was thinking about identity and power and what it meant to be an American, what it meant to belong somewhere, and so she put those things into her book.
- It was always going to be about genetics, with genetic scientists.
- The "time stopages" were always in the text, but she couldn't explain them scientifically. So why not make them magic?, she realized.
- She wrote the 2021 section before the pandemic, so she had to rework it slightly.
- Wrote while listening to instrumental music: The Phantom Thread soundtrack on repeat.
- Major themes include forgiveness, understanding, and acceptance.
- "You are not nothing."
- Khong does not outline; she wants to discover her story along the way, as readers do.
- Interest in Real Americans was so high that in 2022 it sparked a 17-way bidding war between major publishers.
- John Freeman, executive editor at Knopf, met up with a vacationing Khong in Istanbul to seal the deal. Freeman offered to be Khong's "longtime editor, snowplow, hurricane lamp, map holder and in-house fire starter."
Stats & Background
- Marketing: Asian American & Pacific Islander Literature, Cultural Heritage Fiction, Family Life Fiction
- Genre: Realistic Long-Form Archplot
- Print Pages: 416; Word count: 128,454
Reading Grade: 7th; Avg. wds/sent.: 10.56
Lexical Density: 47.04; Flesch Reading Ease: 74.85 - POV: Lily, Nick, May; Person: 3rd; Tense: Past
- Publish date: April 30, 2024
- Publisher: Knopf (Borzoi)
- Audio book length: (14 hours, 40 mins)
- Narrators: Louisa Zhu, Eric Yang, Eunice Wong
- Recognition: New York Times bestseller, Read with Jenna bookclub pick
January 2026
Listen to our podcast: Writers Who Read
Latest: Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
WritersWhoRead.com/LIVE
October 5: All Fours - Miranda July (USA, 2024)
November 2: The God of the Woods - Liz Moore (USA, 2024)
December 7: We Solve Murders - Richard Osman (UK, 2024)
WwR @ RMFW Saturday, Sept 27
- Literary Forensics Overview Workshop (1 hour)
- Reading Games Workshop (1 hour)
- Harness the Power of Causation Panel (1 hour)