Past Events

Come hear two crucial novelists who’re narrating the colonial and postcolonial nation. Chomp on free Burmese food from our catering partner, Burma Noodle Bar. We’re celebrating the new novel by author-actress Charmaine Craig: the semi-autobiographical epic, Miss Burma. Pulitzer Finalist Laila Lalami calls the book “a sweeping novel of Burma...

Get ready to power down: we’re going off the record! Come listen to-but don’t record—an eclectic mix of writers, journalists, chefs, and makeup artists; Mariya Karimjee, Alanna Okun, Jenn de la Vega, Anna Theresa Day, and Delina Medhin get intimate about a timely May theme, Mothers. Moderated by BuzzFeed News...

Join us for a special evening featuring three Arab American writers exploring the boundaries between personal and political: novelist/poet Hala Alyan and poets Hayan Charara and Marwa Helal. From the Six-Day War and the invasion of Iraq to explosive poetic experimentations, these writers explore what it means to have a...

The second event of a new series featuring translators who are first or second generation immigrants or who identify as part of a diaspora, this installment features: Amy Sara Carroll, one of the collaborators in the Transborder Immigrant Tool; Eiko Otake, whose work as a movement artist and translator has...

We’re delighted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Woman Warrior by legendary Asian American novelist and poet Maxine Hong Kingston, one of the most influential and formally adventurous forerunners in Asian American literature.

Transcendent American poet Max Ritvo wrote that if the world outside a poet’s head is more interesting than the world inside their head, they might as well become a journalist. His point: it’s what’s inside the poet’s mind, what (or who) is hooting or singing or moaning or gagging inside...

In the next installment of our Asian American Feminism series, NAPAWF*NYC will be hosting a workshop on Asian American history through a feminist lens. The Chinese Exclusion Act, World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, and the Southeast Asian refugee crisis have been raised in national conversations on the persecution...

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 Kit Yan and Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo. Mouth to Mouth seeks to provide...

Do you feel like you’re living in a surreal dystopia? Well, we’ve got your guidebook. Come hear critically acclaimed authors Deepak Unnikrishnan and Alexandra Kleeman read from new story collections. Their strange inventions will make perfect sense to anyone who feels like they don’t belong in our fantasia of global...

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...

Come through for a rare New York appearance by two out-of-town authors reading works about family turmoil, revolution, and the legacy of Ferdinand Marcos’s rule in the Philippines--a vital reference point to anyone thinking today about authoritarian rule and resistance. Seven members of Susan Quimpo’s family joined the anti-Marcos resistance....

Note: This program is co-sponsored by the AAWW, the reading is taking place at the Tenement Museum. Award-winning author Min Jin Lee comes to the museum with her new book. Pachinko (Grand Central Publishing 2017) follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea, and moving to...

Join us for a night featuring writers of fragmented, hybridic family narratives that explore themes of immigration, grief, and the father: Q.M. Zhang and lê th? di?m thúy, who’ll talk with The New Yorker’s Hua Hsu. A hybrid memoir/novel that’s part espionage, part historical documentary, Q.M. Zhang’s Accomplice to Memory...

As the country faces a xenophobic resurgence, we present novelists, filmmakers, and activists who’re narrating how our immigration system threatens families, mothers, and children. Shanthi Sekaran’s new novel Lucky Boy follows an undocumented eighteen-year-old Chicano mother who winds up in immigration detention--causing her son to be adopted by an upper...

Is your family history a little complicated? Novelists Sonya Chung and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and poet Annie Kim read new work about family trauma crossing generations, countries, and racial identity. In these authors’ works, often multigenerational and multiracial, the personal history of the immigrant family intersects with the broader sweep...

Let’s get conversational (to the tune of Olivia Newton John). Jordan Alam, sára abdullah and Aisha Bint Gladys will be sharing stories of migration and Muslim life in the US. From the mundane to the magical, these artists are sharing new work and speaking about life under the current administration--...

CALLING ALL ARTISTS! A desire to deconstruct and resist is a plus. Amidst the chaos come on home and take the time to ground yourself in poetry and music-- for and by our people. This is a night to rejoice, to celebrate radical imagination, and to heal. We’re joining together...

“Poetry can save us,” Martín Espada once wrote. Join us for the fifth edition of Poetry Poetry, featuring Guggenheim Fellow Kimiko Hahn, National Book Award Finalist Monica Youn, Pushcart Prize Winner Sally Wen Mao, and our very own Poetry Editor Emily Yoon! RESERVE A SEAT! $5 SUGGESTED DONATION | OPEN...

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...

Filial piety and betrayal! Martial law and political prisoners! Stinky Tofu! We’re exploring new Taiwanese American literature from the Shilin night market to the historical trauma of the White Terror. Come hear novelists Shawna Yang Ryan and Ed Lin, who will discuss their books with beauty and fashion politics blogger Arabelle Sicardi (Teen Vogue and ROOKIE). RESERVE A SEAT! $5 SUGGESTED DONATION | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Shawna Yang Ryan’s second novel, Green Island (Knopf 2016), follows the Tsai family and their struggle to survive the infamous White Terror

*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...