232 pp., summer 2004 (16:1), $20
ISBN 978-0-8248-2849-3
Project Muse
JSTOR

Series Editor Frank Stewart.
Guest Editor Sharon May.

Published twenty-five years after the defeat of the Khmer Rouge regime, In the Shadow of Angkor captures the resurgence of the Cambodian arts community and its efforts to restore a rich literary heritage. In many of the works, the artists defy the decimation of their brothers and sisters by the Khmer Rouge, as well as the attempt to erase Cambodia’s memory of its history. The range of expression is impressive: the volume includes poetry, short story, film, rap lyrics, and essays, plus interviews with authors and a portfolio of photographs of Cambodia.

Guest editor: Sharon May researched the Khmer Rouge for the Columbia University Center for the Study of Human Rights. Her stories and photographs have appeared in Mānoa, International Quarterly, Alaska Quarterly Review, Other Voices, and the books Seeking Shelter: Cambodians in Thailand and The Saving Rain. She is completing a collection of short stories.

Artist: Richard Murai was born, raised, and educated in the San Francisco Bay Area and now teaches creative photography in Northern California. His fascination with sacred sites of the world has taken him to India, Peru, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Asia, and Western Europe. The photographs in this issue are selections from a continuing project on Angkor Wat.

---

“In the Shadow of Angkor does a commendable service to Cambodia’s people, reminding the world of the strength of character that has enabled Cambodians to courageously bear witness to intolerable suffering—and now, aided by the renewal of the arts and literature, to begin a nationwide healing. Genocide is not the problem of the people to whom it happened; it is everyone’s problem. This wonderfully inspiring book will increase the reader’s awareness of the responsibility we all have in ending such recurring tragedies.”—Dith Pran, founder and president of The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project and the compiler of Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors

“A beautiful tribute to the Cambodian spirit, this remarkable collection reveals the heartbreaking tragedy and the heart-healing hope that fall within the recent Cambodian experience.”—Carol Wagner, author of Soul Survivors: Stories of Women and Children in Cambodia and director of Friendship with Cambodia.