Day 29: "Love Imagined: A Mixed Race Memoir" by Sherry Quan Lee

32-Books-IconEach day as we count down to the April 18 announcement of the Minnesota Book Awards, we highlight one of the thirty-two finalists. Today we feature 2015 Memoir and Creative Nonfiction finalist Sherry Quan Lee.

 

A Moving Memoir about a Woman’s Search for Love and Acceptance

Love Imagined: A Mixed Race Memoir by Sherry Quan Lee
Published by: Modern History Press/Loving Healing Press
Category Sponsor: Northwestern Mutual

Lee’s memoir is a moving first-person account of growing up in 1950s south Scandinavian Minneapolis as the child of a Chinese father and an African-American mother. As a married adult, Lee was subjected to racism, sexism, and classism from her in-laws. She was essentially told by her white second husband that if her true racial identity was revealed to his parents (they believed that she was Polynesian) they would no longer accept her. Lee writes frankly about her experiences with racism and coming to terms with her racial identity, and ultimately, Love Imagined serves as a reminder that racism is still a part of our society. Lee’s open and honest reminiscence is a heartfelt testament to the hardships faced by those who are constantly reminded of what makes them different, and also to the desire for acceptance.

Excerpt from Love Imagined: A Mixed Race Memoir

There are few photographs of me smiling. I looked away from the camera; I was shy. Even now, I don’t like to be photographed (but I have crossed over from introvert to extrovert on the Myers Briggs exam). I see what other people say they don’t. I see an ugly girl. Crooked teeth. Bad hair. Glasses. I see skin the color of someone my mother wanted me to be, skin bleached with lemon cream every summer, covered with make-up beginning in seventh grade. Shame. I wear it still, I wear it well, and I wear it darker than I did in junior high school because I am trying not to be seen as the white girl. I am trying to express, in any way I can, that despite the Scandinavian neighborhood I grew up in, my father is Chinese, my mother is Black.

Sherry Quan Lee is a Lee Community Instructor at Metropolitan State University and has taught at Intermedia Arts and The Loft Literary Center. Lee is also the author of A Little Mixed Up, Chinese Blackbird, and How to Write a Suicide Note: serial essays that saved a woman’s life.

Video:

In the Press:

A brief interview with Sherry Quan Lee


 

Join us at the Awards Gala!

Get Tickets NowAward winners will be announced at the 27th Annual Minnesota Book Awards Gala on Saturday, April 18 at the historic St. Paul Union Depot. The opening reception begins at 7 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50 and are available by visiting www.thefriends.org/gala.

Have you read Love Imagined? What are your thoughts? We welcome your comments!

Archives

Categories