Anders Øskar has thrived in expat ecosystems as a modern beatnik with a drive for impacting change and pressing iron. Four years spent in the wild west of Sichuan, playing promo gigs, delivering magazines by bicycle, and toiling for humanitarian NGOs lay the foundation for his ethnographic novel Laowhy? Identity Crises in China’s Capital of Spice.
Held hostage by a terrible paperback on an 11-hour bus ride across Laos, he stumbled upon a mesmerizing tale by Carlos Ruiz Zafon at a book swap in Luang Prabang that ignited his literary spark and sense of purpose. After a brief stint in Europe that was equal parts master’s studies and technomusik, Anders now lives stateside, with his sights set on that next big adventure.