DREAM OF THE WATER CHILDREN
MEMORY AND MOURNING IN THE BLACK PACIFIC
by Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd
Edited by Karen Chau
Introduction by Gerald Horne | Foreword by Velina Hasu Houston
Finally, finally. We have finally published the long-awaited DREAM OF THE WATER CHILDREN, MEMORY AND MOURNING IN THE BLACK PACIFIC by Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd. This book has been in the making for four years.
Born to an African American father and Japanese mother, Fredrick Cloyd, the narrator of DREAM OF THE WATER CHILDREN, finds himself not only to be a marginalized person by virtue of his heritage, but often a cultural drifter, as well. Indeed, both his family and his society treat him as if he doesn’t entirely belong to any world. Tautly written in spare, clear poetic prose, this memoir explores the specific contours of Japanese and African American cultures, as well as the broader experience of biracial and multicultural identity. To tell his story, Fredrick incorporates photographs and Japanese writing, history, and memory to convey both rich personal experience and significant historical detail. Bringing together vivid memories with a perceptive cultural eye, DREAM OF THE WATER CHILDREN brings readers closer to a biracial experience, opening up our understanding of the cultural richness and social challenges people from diverse backgrounds face.
What initially attracted me to this manuscript is that it reminded me of one of my mother’s best friend’s brother who served during Vietnam and married a Japanese woman. They had several children and whenever we met up with them, we just ran around and played with them, as children often do. What made them interesting was not because their mother was Japanese, but that they had lived around the world. I remember her sitting there, prim and proper, very quietly amidst the chaos of children, women cooking and gossiping, and men playing cards. I thought she was shy. Some thought she was aloof. Maybe she was lonely. In the end, she and her husband divorced some years later. Fredrick’s story reminded me of them, and that there was a story there that I was totally unaware of at the time. So Fredrick’s story sparked my interest in his tackling an African American-Japanese identity and its relationship in America and Japan, and of course, I liked some of the historical issues he raised in his book. I was intrigued.
But while I immediately liked the idea of the manuscript, it was nearly 1,000 pages that included poetry, prose, Japanese writing, tons of footnotes, and lots of photos, which would require a lot of work. While I knew it was something special, I was not clear on what to do with it. More importantly, I knew that another publisher would white-wash Fredrick’s presentation and try to make it fit into a neat tidy box, which would ruin the premise of the book. And so with the best intentions of fulfilling our mandate to support writers of color, we began developing this book.
Fredrick was already ahead of the game when he submitted his manuscript: he had obtained multiple blurb captions for the book, a stunning cover by artist Kenji C. Liu, and a beautifully written foreword by Velina Hasu Houston. We both agreed that Gerald Horne would be the perfect person to write the introduction of the book, but we, or rather I, still grappled on trying to make the book into what Fredrick defined as a multimedia “anti-memoir.”
One of the first things I did was ask Karen Chau if she would edit the book. Karen had relocated from Pennsylvania to New York to attend graduate school, and I knew she would be perfect. She was one of my first editors during the second iteration of phati’tude Literary Magazine, and she was brilliant. Fredrick wisely agreed and moving forward, Karen spent the next six months going through the manuscript with Fredrick, cutting out text, asking him to elaborate on other points, and rewrite some sections of the book. Meanwhile I had to contact institutions and photographers around the world to ask permission to use their work. The footnotes were too lengthy and after much discussion, we converted them to notes to appear at the end of each chapter. We decided at some point to create an index for the book, and since it had been some time since Fredrick completed the book, he added an afterword. I consulted with both Karen and Fredrick and put in my five cents towards the editing process as they presented the final chapters. The book was daunting, taking up weeks of my time when I had so many other things to do, yet as the book began to take shape, I found the process riveting.
I also had to tackle the layout design and typesetting of the book, which was no small feat; I had to figure out how to conform multiple formats into a consistent layout that flowed throughout the book, and deal with the placement of the photos. When the book was initially typeset as a 6” x 9” book, I hated it. It was too busy and cluttered. While Fredrick was anxious for publication, I held out. The book format did not do justice to what was shaping up to be a very interesting book.
I did what good designers do when they are in a jam, I took a trip to the bookstore and library to check out other books for format ideas. One idea that caught my eye was to open up the book into an 8.5” x 8.5” format, which provided the necessary space needed to help make all the elements harmoniously coexist. I then asked Fredrick to provide artwork for each chapter, and he happily created artistic photo collages. When Fredrick asked me to reconsider the format of the table of contents to include photographs, I sighed: more work. I am so glad he suggested it because the redesign of the table of contents was really the icing on the cake.
When we finally sent a copy of the book to Gerald Horne in 2018, he responded with a terrific introduction, which rounded out the representation Fredrick sought for his book: an African American and a Japanese American. We were thrilled. But it wasn’t quite over yet. Still more proofing and copy editing, correcting nuances, conforming to Chicago Style and working on the index, the shifting of photographs, there was still more to do. The final step was working in collaboration with the printer to use the semi-gloss paper for the final touch. It is indeed a beautiful book: a multimedia masterpiece of photos, poems, prose, Japanese writing and historical renderings in a “mash-up” that is as beautiful as it is academic. The book has succeeded in engaging readers in this important book, one of the first major bodies of work by a Black-Japanese American.
DREAM OF THE WATER CHILDREN is proof of how biography has changed and adapted to the modern age. Since 2Leaf Press’s mandate is to promote works written by multicultural writers, we have always leaned toward the personal narrative, specifically through our 2LP EXPLORATIONS OF DIVERSITY series with books like What Does it Mean to be White in America (2016), The Beiging of America (2017), and Black Lives Have Always Mattered (2017). The belief has always been that personal stories help educate and inform the public. But it was Fredrick’s manuscript that prompted our interest in publishing memoirs and biographies that are no longer cradle-to-grave narratives. Instead, there has been an unconscious shift with authors to create memoirs that echo a particular theme or event, resulting in a wide range of innovative, sideway takes on biographical material, often against a cultural and historical backdrop. So while we were developing DREAM OF THE WATER CHILDREN, 2Leaf Press published its first official memoir in 2017 with the publication of The Fourth Moment Journeys from the Known to the Unknown, A Memoir, a collection of personal narratives that reflect different aspects of Carole J. Garrison’s life that is historically and culturally informative. Carole’s book would help create a path for Fredrick’s book.
Of course, this process was not always smooth sailing. We argued. We pushed. Karen and I would take turns being good cop/bad cop. Fredrick would get frustrated at us both, muttering under his breath in Japanese. Neither of us could blame him, he had entrusted us to publish his book, which took him ten years to write, and here we were, demanding editorial changes, and me not rushing to publish it because it was not quite “there” yet. But there was never any disrespect and to his credit, Fredrick was for the most part patient and always a gentleman. He also stuck with us, I believe, in large part because he was witnessing just like we were the metamorphosis of this book. A book that was organically growing before our very eyes.
As a small press, we are unable to invest this much time, effort and money on any particular book, but I believe I made the right choice in taking this book on. In the process we learned more about ourselves and the world, and in particular, Fredrick’s world view. I am grateful for the experience, and even more grateful that the book is finally out in the world.
It is a book worth reading. Please buy the book. You will not be disappointed. And you should know that Fredrick Cloyd is available for readings, seminars and workshops so feel free to contact us to pass on information to him at editor [AT] 2leafpress [DOT] org.
Cheers and happy reading!
