- Serica Initiative
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
We are thrilled to announce the official launch of Transplants, the compelling new novel by acclaimed author Daniel Tam-Claiborne. Published by Simon & Schuster, this poignant story follows two young women - Lin, a Chinese student, and Liz, a Chinese American teacher - as they navigate identity, belonging, and self-discovery across continents.
About the Author
Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial writer, multimedia producer, and nonprofit director. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Catapult, Literary Hub, Off Assignment, The Rumpus, HuffPost, and elsewhere. A 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, he has also received support from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Kundiman, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and others. Daniel holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His debut novel, Transplants, was a finalist for the 2023 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and is forthcoming from Regalo Press (Simon & Schuster) in 2025.
About the Book
Set on a university campus in rural Qixian, China, Transplants introduces readers to Lin, who finds solace in her pets more than her peers, and Liz, grieving her mother's sudden death while teaching English abroad. Their unlikely friendship is tested by betrayal, leading them to swap places - Lin pursuing education in Ohio, and Liz seeking answers about her family's past in China. As a global catastrophe strains U.S.-China relations, both women confront challenges that force them to reevaluate their identities and the meaning of home.
Alternating between Lin and Liz's perspectives, Tam-Claiborne crafts a lyrical narrative exploring themes of migration, race, love, and the complexities of belonging.
Q&A with Daniel Tam-Claiborne, Deputy Director at Serica Initiative and Published Author!!
Q: You've been at Serica now for nearly 5 years and worked on all the documentaries. Which film series at Serica has been your favorite project to work on?
Daniel:
“Between Black & White” was a real highlight for me. Contributing to a series that sheds light on the ways in which Asian Americans and other communities of color have forged ties but also faced challenges was an opportunity for me to learn so much about our own history in the process. It also enabled me to forge a bond with The Lunar Collective, an organization that cultivates connection, belonging and visibility for Asian American Jews, that has since allowed me to explore and celebrate not only my Asian identity but my Jewish side as well.
Q: What would you say to aspiring writers & non-profit workers during these difficult times?
Daniel:
It’s very rarely the most talented people who end up getting published, it’s who stays at the table longest. I’ve known many people who’ve stopped writing because of self-doubt. Transplants was rejected by dozens of imprints before finding a home. It was one of the most trying experiences for me as a writer, but I’ve come to learn to celebrate the wins. Not everything will work out as you plan, but taking stock of what went right (and thanking the people who got you there) will go a long way towards being able to see the process in a more positive light.
Q: How did you arrive at the central questions and themes in your book? Were they something you had started with or were they revealed to you as you got deeper into the story?
Daniel:
The first inkling for the novel came over fifteen years ago, when I accepted a fellowship to teach English at a university in rural Shanxi Province, China, right after undergrad. As a mixed race Chinese American, I naively thought that the whole experience would be a chance to finally come to terms with my identity. But despite my best efforts at assimilating—marked by my passport and appearance—I remained, simply, a foreigner. While initially disappointed at my inability to cleave to a single sense of self, I realized that embracing this outside guise could also be a strength, enabling me to see my new world from a different perspective.
We often frame international education and cross-cultural exchange as a mutually beneficial experience for all parties involved. While I believe that's generally the case, I also think there are exceptions. For years after, in spite of how undeniably positive the experience was on my own life, I found myself questioning the hierarchies that exist in cross-cultural settings—who gets to belong, who gets left behind, and how even fleeting encounters can alter someone’s trajectory forever. Those ideas are woven throughout Transplants.
Q: And what do you hope readers feel or take away when they finish reading?
Daniel:
Asian Americans have long been perceived as strangers in America and the generational lines of our immigration journeys often complicate the perceptions that get applied broadly to all of us, irrespective of our individual ancestry. That question is further complicated by instances of misunderstanding or intolerance. It is hard to feel at home in a place where you are constantly scrutinized as an outsider and made to not feel welcome. Because so many of us live lives that are caught, precariously, between two continents, it’s all the more important that we have narratives that can normalize the complicated feelings that home elicits and provide a sense of belonging no matter where we are.
In a time of increased hostility between the U.S. and China, writing a book that is trying to bring a degree of humanity and empathy toward the people at the heart of this bilateral relationship increasingly feels like a political act. I hope readers will take away—if not greater appreciation—at least a more nuanced understanding and an openness to the experiences of individuals navigating these two countries and the possibility that our triumphs and challenges may be more shared than we currently envision.
Q: What is one completely unexpected thing that surprised you about the process of getting your book published?
Daniel:
How cathartic it was to kill my darlings! When my editor acquired my novel, she didn’t have much feedback on specific developmental edits, save for the fact that I needed to cut 15% of the words. This, naturally, terrified me, and for weeks I just stared at that line of feedback thinking it would be impossible to achieve. But when it came down to it, I actually reveled in trimming my book down. I kept a spreadsheet with the number of words in each chapter and how many I had cut after each successive draft. By the end, Transplants, which had started at just over 100k words, published at 85k, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
Where to Get Transplants?
Transplants is available TODAY in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats. You can find it at major retailers, independent bookstores, or order directly from the publisher’s website.
Join the Conversation
The Transplants 2025 Spring Book Tour comes to ten cities in just over two weeks!
For more details and links to RSVP as they come in, please visit
