2025 A Few Acres of Snow, a novella

The novella is available here in paperback and ebook.

A Few Acres of Snow is a quiet, emotionally resonant novella that traces the coming-of-age of Chenda, a Cambodian girl growing up in a country that never quite feels like home, Canada.
Told in a series of episodic chapters, each capturing a single day from different points in Chenda’s childhood and adolescence, the story reveals how memory, language, and identity are shaped over time. From her earliest days in a foreign classroom, where she struggles to make sense of unfamiliar words and the silent judgments of teachers, to her teenage years, where friendship, loyalty, and belonging become increasingly complex, Chenda’s world is drawn with compassion and precision.
Through these vignettes, readers witness the gradual untangling of Chenda’s memories as her command of language grows stronger. With each passing chapter, she begins to understand not just the words around her, but the unspoken dynamics beneath them, the coded prejudices of educators, the casual racism of peers, and the quiet acts of kindness that sustain her.
As Chenda grows, she begins to recognize who is truly in her corner and who sees her only through the lens of difference. Her desire to belong is a constant thread, sometimes a source of hope, sometimes of heartbreak. Yet even amid confusion and isolation, she remains observant, curious, and quietly resilient.
In the novella’s poignant final chapter, a secret is revealed, something her mother and older sister assumed she had always known. This discovery not only redefines her understanding of her family’s past but also reframes her entire experience of growing up between worlds.
A Few Acres of Snow is a story about displacement and belonging, the silence between generations, and the power of language to both isolate and connect. Through Chenda’s eyes, we glimpse the quiet strength it takes to grow up when the world around you insists you’re an outsider and the small, deeply human moments that make that journey bearable.

2022 What's in a Name?

"I moved for a better life for my children."

For the first time, this common refrain in immigration stories is captured in an extraordinary way: through heartfelt letters from immigrants to their children.

Our children are why a loving parent does anything. They are why we work late or work multiple jobs. They are why we stay. They are why we leave. They are why we laugh. They are why we fear. They are our reasons.

Reflective, daring, inspiring, and heartfelt, this compilation of twenty letters represents perspectives from first- and second-generation immigrants from Mexico, Nigeria, Nepal, Jamaica, Taiwan, and more. In their letters, contributors consider the future they want for their children, draw from their experiences, and confess their hopes for their future.

Available on Amazon

Some of our nighttime dreams are haunted by archetypal themes that reveal our primordial human vulnerability in an unpredictable world where safety can never be guaranteed. We plunge backwards through empty space, legs askew, in an unstoppable, uncontrollable fall. There is no one to catch us. We are utterly alone in our moment of despair and helplessness. We beg for mercy, but our pleas fall on the deaf ears of our tormentors. We awaken with a gasp, eyes wide open in terror, and consciousness pulls us back to safety.
Cambodian French artist and Sorbonne art professor Phousera Ing, known simply as Séra, has recreated this familiar dream in his memorial sculpture called The Supplicant, which stands on the plaza in front of the French Embassy in Phnom Penh. The statue evokes the very real horror of the Cambodian genocide that still haunts Cambodians today both in Cambodia and abroad and that has been passed down in one way or another to the survivors’ children and grandchildren, permeating the entire society and its diaspora.