A Woman on the Run: Yu-Mei Balasingamchow’s Names Have Been Changed

Diverse Voices Book Review contributor Kimberly Lau interviews Yu-Mei Balasingamchow about her debut novel, Names Have Been Changed. Their conversation explores Ophir, a Singaporean woman who commits a crime, flees the country, and spends the next decade moving through Tokyo, London, Colorado, and unnamed U.S. locations under changing identities. Lau and Balasingamchow discuss the novel’s themes of diaspora, survival, language, home, and the life-changing act of telling one’s story aloud.

Born and raised in Singapore and now based in Boston, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow earned her MFA from Boston University, teaches at GrubStreet, and has received awards and fellowships for her fiction.

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