The Maiden in the Moon
by Sayuri Ayers
Ayers’ chapbook is a lyric essay investigating relationships, mental illness, pregnancy, and family weaving through folktale and childhood memory. This chapbook is at once immediate and ephemeral, rooted in both the body and in dreaming.
(CWs: post-partum depression, thoughts of self-harm.)
36 pages
open edition
Additional Info
EXCERPT
My mother and I sit at the oblong kitchen table, its oak surface dappled by the late afternoon sun. It is the day of the Chinese mid-Autumn festival. I am nine years old. With a paring knife, my mother cuts the plastic seal around a golden tin box of moon cakes. On the top is the image of a maiden, her pale face framed by a halo of jet-black hair, her mouth, a perfect pink bud. Her gilt-edged robes float around her—she is Chang’e, the goddess of the moon.
My mother cuts into moon cake’s brown, egg-glazed crust, revealing its sweet, dark center of lotus paste.
“Go ahead and eat,” she says, sliding a golden wedge over to me. The bone-white plate whisks smoothly over the table’s shiny surface.
The crust crumbles in my mouth, the lotus paste honeyed, heavy. I gaze at my mother, savoring this moment alone with her. As the paste melts on my tongue, my mother takes a bite of her own slice of moon cake.
Her rigid shoulders relax. Her lips arch upwards into a slight smile, the worry lines that ridged her brow vanishing. I see my mother’s past self, a young woman from Hong Kong that I longed to know—the one full of stories.
“Now,” she says, “I will tell you about the maiden in the moon.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sayuri Ayers is a prose writer and poet from Columbus, Ohio. Her work explores identity, motherhood, and mental health. Sayuri is a Kundiman Fellow and VCCA Resident. In 2020, she received the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence Award for creative nonfiction. She has also been awarded grants from OAC, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and Arts Possible Ohio.
About the Artist
Hemalatha (Hemu) Venkataraman is an artist and illustrator (with a background in architecture, design, and reasearch) based in Columbus, Ohio. Originally from Madras, India, she marries different artistic styles and unconventional canvases (like broken egg shells, used tea bags, wearable art, etc.) with a particular focus on buildings, minute details, and miniature artwork. You can find her work on her website (www.hemudesigns.com) or reach out to her via Instagram (@hemuvenkat). In her spare time, she loves reading books and drinking chai.
OTHER BOOKS
The Woman, The River (Porkbelly Press, 2023)
Mother/Wound (Full/Crescent Press)
Radish Legs, Duck Feet (Green Bottle Press)