“No story matters till it is finished and the only stories that need telling are the ones whose endings do not fulfill us,” writes Fae Myenne Ng in Steer Toward Rock (Hyperion 2008). Steer is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Ng’s first novel Bone (Hyperion 1993), a classic of Asian American literature and not since Bone, has a work so eloquently revealed the complex loyalties of Chinese America. Set in a McCarthy-era San Francisco, Steer Toward Rock is the story of a man who chooses love over the law, illuminating relationships that are complicated by the process of immigration. Ng will read and discuss her work with Will Schwalbe, a board member of The Asian American Writers’ Workshop. This event is open to the public; $5 donation is suggested.

A first generation Chinese-American, Fae Myenne Ng was born in San Francisco. In her bestselling and critically praised debut, Bone, Ng uncovered the hopes and grief a Chinatown family, aided by her “poet’s gift for metaphor and … reporter’s eye for detail” (Michiko Kakatuni, The New York Times). Ng is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Pushcart Prize and awards from the NEA, the Lannan Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Novelist Maxine Hong Kingston called Steer Toward Rock“a tale about illegal aliens from China, told with their own images, idioms, and axioms – and charming humor.”