Past Events

If you’re in the Halloween spirit for some bewitching poetry, come celebrate the launch of Jess Rizkallah’s new book of poems, the magic my body becomes. She will be joined by poets Marwa Helal, Aria Aber, and Melissa Lozada-Oliva, all of whom write into different sorts of magics: the body,...

How is resistance possible when reality itself is obscured? In an era of "fake news" and more facts than anyone could hope to grasp, authoritarians rely on this uncertainty to consolidate their hold on power. Legendary journalist Raissa Robles joins us from the Philippines to share her new work, Marcos...

Many Asian Americans know innately that intergenerational trauma is real, but how do we “prove” it? Utah Poet Laureate Paisley Rekdal's new book, The Broken Country, tells the story of Vietnamese-American Kiet Thanh Ly, who stabbed two white men in 2012 in retribution for the Vietnam War, even though he...

Mic Check! Are you a writer? Come share your work at our next edition of our open mic, Mouth to Mouth. Hosted by AAWW Fam poets Sonia Guiñansaca and Kay Ulanday Barrett, this edition of Mouth to Mouth features Tanea Lunsford Lynx and Tonilyn A. Sideco. Mouth to Mouth seeks...

Come for a special night investigating how young Muslim Americans resist empire through hip hop and other musical subcultures. Su'ad Abdul Khabeer calls it “Muslim Cool”—her term for how young Muslims in the United States fight state power by engaging with Black identity, particularly through fashion and music. In a...

Come for a special night featuring author M. Evelina Galang, whose new nonfiction book Lola's House: Filipino Women Living with War (Curbstone, 2017) tells the story of sixteen surviving Filipino comfort women who survived violence inflicted by the Japanese army in World War II. Starting in the late nineties, Galang...

Three Sessions, 2.5 hours each (6-8:30pm) Wednesdays September 20th, September 27th, and October 4th Fees & Payment Options: $250 General / $220 AAWW Members (Become a Member!) Full payment due before first class. Maximum of fifteen students. Priority will be given to previous students of Vernacular as Resistance. *STUDENT RATE...

Young-ha Kim, one of the most talented and prolific Korean writers of his generation, is making a rare appearance in New York to celebrate the launch of his latest novel, which explores social disintegration and the seedy underside of Seoul. Translated by Krys Lee, I Hear Your Voice, Kim’s fifth book, follows...

One marriage is ending, and another is imminent. For the female protagonists of Danzy Senna’s New People and Katie Kitamura’s A Separation, marriage is a mark of achievement, a psychological bender, a private investigation, and a bracingly intimate way to hold a mirror to our turbulent emotional realities. New People—an...

If you’re Asian American or an immigrant, you’ve probably wondered: what does it mean to search for home? Well, you (and your post-colonial melancholia) are invited to this special event about Middle East politics, revolution, and the refugee experience, You may have read Iranian-American novelist Dina Nayeri’s viral story in...

Does literature stop at a country's borders, or is it possible to write transnationally? We invite you to the launch of the Transpacific Literary Project with the publication of our first themed portfolio, "Remittance." The Transpacific Literary Project is an exciting new initiative from the Asian American Writers' Workshop that...

The struggle to topple Confederate statues around the country is a challenge to rewrite the textbook version of American history we’re supposed to believe in. Poets Patrick Rosal, Bao Phi, and Sokunthary Svay confront nationalist mythology with lyrical odes to the America we struggle against, and the one being built...

Mic Check! Are you a writer? Come share your work at our next edition of our open mic, Mouth to Mouth. Hosted by AAWW Fam poets Sonia Guiñansaca and Kay Ulanday Barrett, this edition of Mouth to Mouth features Giselle Buchanan and Daniel K. Isaac. Mouth to Mouth seeks to...

The Asian American Writers' Workshop is now accepting applications for the Open City Project Grant Fellowship and the Open City Muslim Communities Fellowship. If you are a strong, voice-driven storyteller who cares about social justice movements and transporting readers to the creative subcultures of color in neighborhoods across Queens, Manhattan,...

How does private grief come to blend into today’s turbulent political landscape? For the South Asian families at the center of Kamila Shamsie and Hirsh Sawhney’s latest novels, the death of parents launches surviving family members into unexpected political terrain. In Shamsie’s Home Fire and Sawhney’s South Haven, grief blurs with anger, borders,...

Three Sessions, 3 hours each (6-9pm) Fridays, August 11th, August 18th, August 25th Fees & Payment Options: $150 General / $100 AAWW Members (JOIN THE FAN CLUB!) Full payment due before first class. STUDENT RATE AVAILABLE FOR LIMITED SEATS Why you should take this class: You’ve got something special in...

If you’re in the mood for an addictive and charming summer read, come hear authors Diksha Basu and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan read new novels about social climbing, love, and the drive to strike it rich. Basu’s The Windfall portrays the rise of the Delhi rich from the perspective of a...

Four Sessions, 2 hours each (7-9pm) Wednesdays August 9th, August 16th, August 23rd, August 30th Fees & Payment Options: $200 General / $180 AAWW Members (JOIN THE FAN CLUB!) Full payment due before first class. Maximum of fifteen students. Why you should take this class: Poet Sally Wen Mao, award-winning...

Four Sessions, 3 hours each (6-9pm) Tuesdays, August 8, August 15, August 22, and August 29 Fees & Payment Options: $220 General / $200 AAWW Members (JOIN THE FAN CLUB!) Full payment due before first class. Maximum of ten students. Why you should take this class: Writer & Director Darine...

Come hear poet Hossannah Asuncion and nonfiction writer Laurel Fantauzzo write about the ghosts of love—the emotional distance it can create when the desired intimacy fails, and the ways love haunts the people who witnessed it, even when it's passed. With her debut poetry collection, Hossannah Asuncion’s Object Permanence uncovers...

Nearly 90% of the books reviewed by the New York Times are written by white writers. In a scintillating performance debut, the AAWW Margins Fellows will play with language to drag the literary institution and each other. They may come in drag. Dragons will be provided on request. RSVP HERE...

Join us for the sixth session of Poetry Poetry and hear readings by four thrilling poets: Esther Lin, Michelle Lin, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Tommy Pico. These poets are pushing the edges of poetic theory, form, and politics, interrogating the legacies of Asian American immigration, queer identity, settler colonialism, and...

Come hear the authors of two of this year’s most anticipated short story collections. The quotidian stories in Akhil Sharma’s new book simmer with a barely hidden, devastatingly emotional undercurrent?and have earned him comparisons to Chekov. Reminiscent of Calvino and Borges, Kanishk Tharoor’s lush and inventive collection ranges from science...

Do you ever feel like your life is in a constant state of crisis? Do you feel like, nevertheless, you persist? Come see three thrilling experimental novelists whose new books are about pushing forward against life-killing forces, whether it’s capitalism, the political status quo, or more existential threats like grief...

Day 2 of WE ARE THE PEOPLE WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR: A Festival of Visionary Ideas, Activism & Arts Given the pivotal role that cultural narratives play in deciding public policy and the fates of countless communities; the reversal of political momentum on immigrant, mass incarceration, criminal justice reform, and...

Come on out for a kanikapila vegetarian potluck -- an evening of music and poetry to fundraise for the recording of Ishle Yi Park's Bless Our Waters, her first musical CD in Hawaii with Na Hoku Award-winning Asian Pacific Islander musician & producer Kenneth Makuakane. Featuring Taiyo Na and other...

Celebrate the new edition of works by Nick Joaquin, one of the most important writers of the Philippines who is only now being published in the United States for the first time by Penguin Classics. Born in 1917, Joaquin wrote a surreal, anguished sentence that cast an ironic eye at...

Rahul Mehta and SJ Sindu read from debut novels featuring complex queer desi characters struggling to reconcile their gender and sexuality with the families they came from. Introduced by AAWW Board Member Manan Ahmed of Chapati Mystery and Columbia University. Moderated by Sreshtha Sen, former director of the Sarah Lawrence...

Spend the second to last Friday of Pride Month with Kay Ulanday Barrett, Jennif(f)er Tamayo, Angela Peñaredondo, & Alan Pelaez! Join us as we honor queer and trans voices, emphasize the importance of this month, and celebrate Kay’s first poetry collection When The Chant Comes (Topside Heliotrope)! Featured in The...

Join us for two Korean American novelists whose new novels interrogate 1970s and 1980s Korean politics: Jimin Han and Yoojin Grace Wuertz, both born in Seoul. Both books follow university students, whether in the US and in Seoul, as they fall in love, build friendships, and understand how they relate...