What will we see about ourselves when we look at the past?
In this episode, I’m chatting with Jack Wang about his debut novel, The Riveter, a war novel focused on Chinese Canadian experiences during the Second World War. We discuss themes of love, betrayal, honour, and identity. Jack tells me how he narrowed down his research to the most important things and honoured the past by carefully relocating it into present bodies. I learned a lot from Jack, and I think this episode is a great resource for anyone writing historical fiction.
The Riveter tells the story of the interracial relationship between Josiah Chang, an honourable Chinese man, and his love interest, Poppy, a Caucasian woman living life on her own terms. When Josiah finds out that their love will rob Poppy of her birthright, he enlists in the Second World War to gain the right to love Poppy. Forced to make hard choices and bend to the changes of war, Josiah and Poppy realize that the true war is in their hearts.
Skip to 2:18 to get a summary of my thoughts on the book!
The Riveter is out now from House of Anansi Press.
Got any thoughts on this episode or want to suggest authors you’d like to see on the show? Send me a note here.
If you’d like to get your own copy of The Riveter, you can do so here.
Show highlights
- Why Jack wrote a novel on the Second World War
- Designing the characters of Josiah Chang and Poppy
- Bringing truth from the past to the present
- How much research should you use in writing historical fiction?
- Using drama to evolve your characters
- Writing about interracial relationships
- Traversing through time and employing chronology
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About jack Wang
JACK WANG is the author of the story collection We Two Alone (House of Anansi, 2020; HarperVia, 2021), winner of the 2021 Central New York Book Award in Fiction and the 2020 Danuta Gleed Literary Award from the Writers’ Union of Canada for best debut collection in English, shortlisted for the 2021 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and longlisted for Canada Reads 2022. His fiction has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Journey Prize. His forthcoming novel, The Riveter (House of Anansi, HarperVia, 2025), received an Artist Fellowship in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a Research and Creation Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
He holds a BSc from the University of Toronto, an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona and a PhD in English from Florida State University. In 2014–15, he held the David T. K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and in 2022, he served as a writer-in-residence at Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver. He is a professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, where he lives with his wife and their two daughters.
Find out more about Jack: jackwangauthor.com.
About The Riveter
Vancouver, 1942. Josiah Chang arrives in the bustling city ready to serve his country in the war against fascism, but Chinese Canadians are barred from joining the army out of fear they might expect citizenship in return. So, Josiah heads to the shipyard to find work as a riveter, fastening together the ribs and steel plates of Victory ships.
One night, Josiah spots Poppy singing at a navy club. Despite their different backgrounds, they fall for each other instantly and begin a starry-eyed romance that lasts until the harsh reality of their situation is made clear. Determined to prove himself, Josiah takes a train to Toronto where he’s finally given the chance to enlist. After volunteering for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and jumping into Normandy on D-Day, he must fight through the battlefields of Europe to make it back to the woman he loves.
By turns harrowing and exhilarating, The Riveter explores what one man must sacrifice to belong to the only country he has ever called home.
Guest’s links
Follow Jack on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackwangauthor/
Follow Jack on X: https://twitter.com/jackwangauthor
Host’s links
Book a one-on-one with Lola: https://wordcaps.com/coaching/
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