Past Events

*This event is not held at the Workshop in NY* Not only do you not have an uncle in publishing or see people from the neighborhood get MFAs, immigrants and children of immigrants are inculcated to opt for "safe," "secure," often well-paying jobs; a writing career may seem like an...

*This event is not held at the Workshop in NY* What will a new generation of literary leadership look like? While many literary institutions have a reputation for being stodgy or slow-moving with regards to change, here are five directors who bring unique experience and fresh perspective to literary nonprofits,...

*This event is not held at the Workshop in NY* What literary resources are available for Asian American writers? What does it mean to be an Asian writer in the 21st century? This 2nd Asian American caucus is not a panel or a reading, but an open town-hall-style hang out...

Fam, things are about to get real hard. Harder than they have ever been and we need to hold fast and be smart about how we organize over the next four years. To protect ourselves we need to talk about digital security and how to practice digital self-defense during a...

Join us for the New York launch of scholar Christine Bacareza Balance’s new book Tropical Renditions: Making Musical Scenes in Filipino America(Duke 2016), a vital exploration of post-WWII Filipino literary and musical culture. We’ll also feature former AAWW Literary Award winner Patrick Rosal’s new poetry collection Brooklyn Antediluvian (Persea 2016). His work channels DJ culture,...

Come throw poetry in the atom smasher with death, essays, grief, television, orientalism, science fiction, wandering, and ghosts. This event on hybrid forms and migrant thoughts features writers Madhu Kaza, Janice Lee, and Sun Yung Shin, the latter two appearing in a rare New York visit. We’ll explore poetry as...

AAWW is proud to rent its space for the following program organized by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Donald Trump’s shocking election victory presents itself not only as a national catastrophe for the American people, but as a threat to the entire globe. While Trump’s views on foreign policy are usually described...

We’re excited to host the first installment of The Bridge, a special reading series featuring translators who first or second generation immigrants or who identify as part of a diaspora. Hosted by Sal Robinson and Madhu Kaza, the series will feature immigrant and POC translators--and will also coincide with a...

For more than twenty years, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop has incubated emerging writers of color, including such writers as Tina Chang, Monica Ferrell, and Jhumpa Lahiri. We recently created an utterly new fellowship that grants publication opportunities, cash, work space, and a residency at the Millay Colony for the...

Mic Check! Are you a writer? Come share your work at our next edition of our open mic, Mouth to Mouth. Hosted by poets Sonia Guiñansaca and Kay Ulanday Barrett, this edition of Mouth to Mouth features Jade Phoenix Martinez and Jes Tom. Trans Day of Remembrance is November 20th...

We’re giving out free Vanessa’s Dumplings and joining forces with the Center for Fiction to celebrate Jade Chang’s explosive debut novel, The Wangs Vs The World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2016). Named one of the most anticipated titles by Barnes & Noble, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, and iBooks, The Wangs is both...

You can’t miss this rare New York appearance by novelist Madeleine Thien, whose ambitious novel of contemporary Chinese history--Do Not Say We Have Nothing (W.W. Norton 2016)--is a finalist for this year’s Man Booker Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award, Canada’s Highest Literary Prize. An epic, magisterial story, the...

We’re calling all writers, readers, activists, intellectuals, agitators, friends, family, friends, and community. We are here for you. We are holding a space for our community to heal together and share some light and love. We are here if you want to grieve, if you want to breathe, or if...

Dear melancholic second-generation Asian peeps! Come through for a special reading featuring two critically acclaimed fiction writers reading shrewd, witty books about love and infidelity, motherhood and immigrant families. Featuring bestselling novelist Janice Y.K. Lee and Vanessa Hua. Lee’s new novel explores three women trying to find their place and...

If you’re as into partying down for ravishing literary fiction and colonial history as we are, then you cannot miss this book release party for Filipina-Australian author Sabina Murray’s epic novel Valiant Gentlemen (Grove Press 2016). The novel follows the life, love and politics of Irish revolutionary bad-ass Roger Casement...

Come celebrate the new cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop, one of today’s most prominent writers on Chinese culinary traditions. Called “the best writer in the West… on Chinese food” by The Telegraph, Fuchsia’s new book Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China (W.W. Norton 2016) explores...

Dates: 10/25 and 10/27 (6-9pm) & 10/29 (1-4pm) Fees & Payment Options: $220 General / $200 AAWW Members (SIGN UP HERE!) Full payment due before first class. Five RAWI members will receive a free spot in this class. Maximum of twelve students. Develop your screenwriting skills with award-winning writer and...

In the mood for a film screening? Gear up as a community and gather ‘round for a screening of the Queer Vietnamese film N??c (Water/Homeland). Praised by The Long Beach Post as “a six-minute shot to the heart. It’s a visceral, gut-wrenching, heartfelt string of moments” -- N??c is an...

Four critically acclaimed writers read from new books exploring the legacy of political violence, whether it’s based around gender or war, migration or the state. Fiction writers Anuk Arudpragasam, Hasanthika Sirisena, Sunil Yapa, and Nayomi Munaweera (here for a rare New York appearance!) unearth trauma’s deep wounds from the Civil...

NOTE: WE HAVE CHANGED THE DATE FROM TUESDAY 10/17/16 TO TUESDAY 10/18/16. Swing by for a unique appearance by Can Xue, one of China’s edgiest avant-garde fiction writers, as well as one of the country’s most significant women writers. Susan Sontag called Can Xue the most likely possibility of a...

Join Xu Xi and Bino Realuyo to talk about Xu’s newly released novel That Man In Our Lives (C&R Press 2016). Bino and Xu will perform the book's prelude in a conversation on the transnational novel, metafiction, jazz and Bugs Bunny. Narrator, character, and oh yeah, real people themselves shapeshift...

Join us for a subversive, raucous night celebrating novelist Randa Jarrar’s debut short story collection, Him, Me, Muhammad Ali (Sarabande 2016). We’ll hear from Randa herself as well as a cast of literary all-stars performing her work: essayist Moustafa Bayoumi, poet Hala Alyan, and Buzzfeed’s Sara Yasin. BTW, did we...

Join us for a special night that mixes politics, literature, and theater, as we launch Marina Budhos’s latest novel Watched—a moral odyssey of a Muslim teenager in the age of surveillance. We’ll be joined by a special theatrical adaptation of the book by actors from Theater 167, who will also...

Join us for a rare New York appearance by translator Deborah Smith, whose translation of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian: A Novel (Hogarth 2016) just won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. She’ll discuss her new translation of Bae Suah’s A Greater Music (Open Letter 2016) with novelist and editor Ed...

Mic Check! Are you a writer? Come share your work at our next edition of our open mic, Mouth to Mouth. Hosted by poets Sonia Guiñansaca and Kay Ulanday Barrett, this edition of Mouth to Mouth features Dane Figueroa Edidi and Sham-e Ali Nayeem. Mouth to Mouth seeks to provide...

Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Memoir and Autobiographical Fiction Six Mondays October 3, 10, 17, 24; November 7, 14 7PM-9PM $400 General / $375 AAWW Members $360 Early Registration before Labor Day - September 5th Writing from life can be a tricky business. There are people to protect, faulty memories of...

Drop by for the special launch for AMPLIFY(HER), the first-ever zine by and for undocumented women from the Asian diaspora. Grab your copy and support undocumented Asian writers alongside event hosts Sonia Guiñansaca of CultureStrike and Kay Ulanday Barrett, author of When The Chant Comes (Topside Press 2016). Come hear...

Join us for the opening night of the Singapore Literary Festival! Racial/ethnic identifications are seen as visible, whereas sexual preferences are deemed otherwise. How do writers make visible, or not, such identifications and preferences, and why do they do so? Award-winning Singaporean authors and playwrights Alfian Sa’at and Ovidia Yu...

Celebrate the launch of an innovative new series from Restless Books with two of contemporary literature’s most exciting transnational writers: Booker Finalist Ruth Ozeki and Tash Aw. Both writers have slim new editions with a new series by Restless Books called THE FACE, which asks writers to offer a guided...

Join us for a special night featuring four poets on the cutting edge of avant-garde poetry and politics and whose work explores issues of gender, anti-capitalism, and race. We’re excited to host visits from out-of-town poets published by Commune Editions: David Lau, the editor of Lana Turner Journal, and Oakland-based...