Join us to celebrate the launch of the ground-breaking, genre-bending Asian American Writers’ Workshop favorite R. Zamora Linmark for his debut YA novel, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WILDE AT HEART. This effortlessly diverse LGBTQ + romance has a cast of characters varying in sexuality, race, and gender, all brought to life with sensitivity and ease.

RSVP! $5 Suggested Donation at the Door.
All donations go to AAWW public programs. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is a national nonprofit dedicated to the idea that Asian American stories deserve to be told.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING WILDE AT HEART is about a seventeen-year-old boy’s journey through first love and first heartbreak, guided by his personal hero, Oscar Wilde. Words have always been more than enough for Ken Z, but when he meets Ran at the mall food court, everything changes. Beautiful, mysterious Ran opens the door to a number of firsts for Ken: first kiss, first love. But as quickly as he enters Ken’s life, Ran disappears, and Ken Z is left wondering: Why love at all, if this is where it leads? Letting it end there would be tragic. So with the help of his best friends, the comfort of his haikus and lists, and even strange, surreal appearances by his hero, Oscar Wilde, Ken will find that love is worth more than the price of heartbreak.

The reading will be followed by a moderated discussion with Gina Apostol.

R. Zamora Linmark is the author of The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart, his first novel for young adults from Delacorte/Random House. He has also published two novels, Rolling the R’s (Kaya Press) which he’d adapted for the stage, and Leche (Coffee House Press), as well as four poetry collections, most recently, Pop Vérité, all from Hanging Loose Press. He divides his time between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Baguio, Philippines.

Gina Apostol: Publishers’ Weekly named Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto one of the Ten Best Books of 2018. The New York Times calls Insurrecto “a bravura performance…Apostol is a magician with language (think Borges, think Nabokov)….” Her third book, Gun Dealers’ Daughter, won the 2013 PEN/Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize. Her first two novels, Bibliolepsy and The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, both won the Juan Laya Prize for the Novel (Philippine National Book Award). Her most recent work uses her research on the Philippine-American War to cast a lens on our contemporary times. She lives in New York City and western Massachusetts and grew up in Tacloban, Philippines. She teaches at the Fieldston School in New York City.

Co-sponsored by Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.

This event will be livestreamed on the Asian American Writers’ Facebook page.

NOTE ON ACCESSIBILITY
* The space is wheelchair accessible. No stairs. Direct elevator from ground floor to 6th floor.
* We strongly encourage all participants of the space/event to be scent-free.
If you all have any other specific questions about accessibility, please email Tiffany Le at tle@aaww.org with any questions on reserving priority seating.