Past Events

Running from History
Mia Alvar, Vu Tran, and Bino Realuyo
In the stories of Mia Alvar and Vu Tran, you can run away from history but you can't escape it. Both authors have been acclaimed by NPR and the New York Times for their debut books that discuss the trauma of transnational migration of the 1960s and ‘70s and the...
December 7, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
From Page to Play
Eric Gamalinda, Alexis Camins, Jennifer Betit Yen and Annette Storckman
Watch a talented cast of actors bring a novel to life! The Workshop is proud to host an exclusive back-to-back staged reading of Eric Gamalinda's The Descartes Highlands, performed by Alexis Camins and Jennifer Betit Yen, Executive Director of the Asian American Film Lab--as well as a new play in progress,...
December 3, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York New York 10001
Liu Xia Tribute Reading
Antonio Aiello, Nick Flynn, Tina Chang, Ming Di, and Ken Chen
Join us and our friends at Graywolf Press and Pen America Center to celebrate Liu Xia’s Empty Chairs: Selected Poems, translated from the Chinese by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern. Born in Beijing in 1961, the Chinese painter, photographer, and poet Liu Xia has been under house arrest at her...
December 1, 2015
7:00 PM
Bookcourt
163 Court St
Brooklyn NY 11201
Drunken Boat - UNION
Christine Chia, Rand Richards Cooper, Rachel Hadas, Amanda Lee Koe, Jee Leong Koh, Sabina Murray, Gregory Pardlo, Stephanie Strickland, and Ravi Shankar
Join us to celebrate the release of Union, a new anthology assembled by international literary journal Drunken Boat. Commemorating 50 years of Singaporean independence (as well as the journal’s 15-year anniversary), Union draws out underlying connections between Singapore and the United States, both heterogenous, cosmopolitan democracies. Ravi Shankar, the founding...
November 23, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor
New York NY 10001
Love in Imaginary Places: A Night with Europa Editions
Chaitali Sen, Jennifer Tseng, and Gina Apostol
Join us for a night of fraught love and exquisite literary fiction with Jennifer Tseng and Chaitali Sen. Both novelists imagine troubled romantic relationships in vivid settings and are published by Europa Editions, the publisher of Elena Ferrante and Muriel Barbery. Moderated by novelist Gina Apostol, whose novel Gun Dealers’ Daughter (W.W....
November 19, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
Lost Histories of World War II
Raghu Karnad, Nikil Saval, and Terese Svoboda
Come hear award-winning authors Raghu Karnad and Terese Svoboda discuss hidden family histories of the Asia theater of World War II. Moderated by N+1 editor Nikil Saval, author of Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace. When Raghu Karnad found three sepia-toned photographs at his grandmother’s house, he learned the...
November 4, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
Information Session: The Margins Fellowship & Open City Project Grants
the editors of The Margins and Open City
  The Asian American Writers' Workshop is now accepting applications for two separate opportunities for emerging Asian American writers: The Margins Fellowship and Open City Project Grants. Come learn more and meet our editors at an information session on Thursday, October 29. About the Fellowships and Grants: The Open City...
October 29, 2015
6:30 PM
Asian American Writers’ Worskhop
112 West 27 Street, Suite 600
New York NY 10001
The Artist, Invented
Luis Francia & Midori Yamamura
Poet and nonfiction writer Luis Francia muses on his most pressing preoccupations: colonial history, contemporary politics, and the arts. Moving between Salman Rushdie's first post-fatwa appearance in the United States to Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest in Burma and reaching back to José Rizal’s late-19th century visits...
October 28, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
Adopting an Identity
Lee Herrick, Tracy O’Neill, Matthew Salesses, Sung J. Woo, and Shinhee Han
Join us as four authors—Lee Herrick, Tracy O’Neill, Matthew Salesses, Sung J. Woo-  read from new books that grapple with the realities of adoption, broken families, and the journeys we take to find out where we belong. All of their protagonists are adoptees, as well as three of the authors. Moderated by...
October 22, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
Prognosis: Capitalism
Deanna Fei, Sandeep Jauhar, and Dora Wang
Do your doctor’s visits remind you of the collected works of Franz Kafka? Did your blood pressure spike when you heard about the pharmaceutical CEO who raised the price of an AIDS pill from $13.50 to $750? Well, come hear memoirists Deanna Fei, Sandeep Jauhar, and Dora Wang discuss how...
October 7, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
Launch Party for Moustafa Bayoumi
Moustafa Bayoumi & Zohra Saed
Moustafa Bayoumi's first book, How Does It Feel to Be A Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (Penguin Press 2008), became an instant classic: a primer to help understand life after September 11th. The book offered an intimate portrait of Arab youth in Brooklyn, who experienced Islamophobic racism and...
October 1, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street
New York New York 10001
Sense & Sense-making: A Roundtable on Im/migration & Literary Imaginations
Meena Alexander, Ken Chen, Chong Chon-Smith, Kyoo Lee, Min Jin Lee, Wendy Lee, and Patricia Park
A CUNY "Mapping Asian American New York" faculty seminar, this roundtable will discuss the links between writing and migration. Organized by CUNY Associate Professor of Philosophy Kyoo Lee, this event will feature Asian American writers and intellectuals discussing the spatiotemporal “sparks” of imagination that push forward narrative and document cross-cultural...
September 25, 2015
4:00 PM
Roosevelt House, Hunter College CUNY
47-49 E 65th St,
New York NY 10065
Poetry & Politics II
David Mura, Monica Sok, Aimee Suzara, & Cathy Linh Che
The poems of David Mura, Monica Sok, and Aimee Suzara delve into the darker reaches of history: the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the mass killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge, and the exhibition of Filipinos at the 1904 World’s Fair. We begin our second installment...
September 24, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
MARGINS FELLOWS READING
Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Wo Chan, Alexander Chee, Muna Gurung, Meera Nair & Jennifer Tamayo
For more than twenty years, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop has incubated emerging writers of color, including such writers as Cathy Park Hong, Tina Chang, and Jhumpa Lahiri. Last year, we created an utterly new fellowship that grants publication opportunities, cash, work space, and a residency at the Millay Colony for the Arts: The Margins Fellowship.
September 22, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street
New York New York 10001
Ghost Politics
Eka Kurniawan and Annie Tucker
One of Indonesia’s most prominent novelists, Eka Kurniawan has been likened to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison and named the successor to Indonesia national novelist Pramaoedya Ananta Toer by none other than Benedict Anderson. Join us to celebrate the English language debut—and a rare stateside appearance—of a great world...
September 21, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street
New York New York 10001
Heroine vs. City
Patricia Park, Alex Kleeman, & Anelise Chen
The woman protagonists of Patricia Park and Alexandra Kleeman’s debut novels are contemporary, cosmopolitan, and unlike any heroines you’ve met before. Take Korean American orphan Jane Re, the bodega worker-turned-Brooklynite nanny of her novel Re Jane. The book features a parentless child and a scandalous love affair, but Patricia reboots...
September 16, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
Monsters and Madmen, Heroes and Humans: Character Design Class
Wendy Xu and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
  One afternoon session, 2:00pm – 5:00pm Saturday, September 12 Fee: $20 Class limit 15 people What makes a character? Is it their favorite snack, their bushy eyebrows, their relationship with their mom, their all black wardrobe? Come spend Saturday, September 12 building a character from the ground up. We’ll...
September 12, 2015
2:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street, Suite 600
New York NY 10001
The Empire Strikes India & China: Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh
Location: Verso Books, 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Doors open at 6:30 PM. It’s 1839 and China and Great Britain stand on the brink of the First Opium War. By the time it’s over, the Western powers will have torched the Emperor’s summer palace, legalized the Opium trade...
Anti-Nationalism Day!
Chaya Babu, Muna Gurung, Amitava Kumar, Hari Kunzru, and Swati Khurana
For the final event in the Post-Midnight series, guest curator the Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) is throwing a rather unusual holiday: Anti-Nationalism Day. An invented holiday meant to humorously rebut India's Independence Day on August 15th, Anti-Nationalism Day will feature poets and writers reading newly written pieces in response...
August 30, 2015
3:00 PM
Queens Museum
New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Queens NY 11368
Daughters of Brooklyn
Tanwi Nandini Islam, Naomi Jackson, and Nadia Q. Ahmad
Join us for an evening featuring Tanwi Nandini Islam and Naomi Jackson, whose debut novels share a setting in Brooklyn, home to so many families who call somewhere else home. Born to immigrant parents, Islam's and Jackson’s heroines wrestle with competing cultural messages, gender norms, and a poignant sense of placelessness,...
August 13, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
Poetry & Politics I
Wing Tek Lum, Vikas Menon, & Sarah Gambito
Calling all poets and politicos! You are hereby requested to drop by our first installation of our Poetry & Politics series featuring Wing Tek Lum and Vikas Menon and MCed by Sarah Gambito. In 1937, the Japanese army invaded the then capital of China--the city of Nanjing--and over the next...
July 27, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
The #Good?Muslim?Bad?Muslim Podcast, Live from New York!
Taz Ahmed, Zahra Noorbakhsh, Navdeep Tucker & DJ Rekha
Join us for an evening of conversation and laughter as the quirky yet controversial duo of the #GoodMuslimBadMuslim podcast record a live show for their next episode from the heart of the Big Apple. Stay tuned as co-hosts Zahra Noorbakhsh and Taz Ahmed declare fatwas, creep sharia and hand out Good...
July 23, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor
New York NY 10001
Mouth to Mouth Open Mic
Kay Barrett & Jess X Chen, Hosted by Shinji Moon & Sonia Guiñansaca
Calling all poets, writers, musicians, and comedians who want to share their work with the community! After a brief hiatus, we are back with our Mouth-to-Mouth open mic series, a safe space for forging new art and communities. We’ve seen emerging writers and established authors, sparked book deals, and provided...
July 11, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, 6FL
New York NY 10001
Comics & Graphic Vignettes – From Scribble to Strip
Wendy Xu and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
One afternoon session, 2:00pm – 5:00pm Saturday, July 11 Fee: $20 Class limit 15 people Whether you feel superhuman or just super human, come draw your story at this workshop. We’ll explore the history of Asian American comic and graphic novel artists, then jump into the creative process ourselves. From...
July 11, 2015
2:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Sixth Floor
New York NY 10001
EXCAVATING "NEW" PHILIPPINE MYTHS - Kuwento: Lost Things
Anna Alves, Sarah Gambito, Jessica Hagedorn, & Melissa R. Sipin
Join us for a special event celebrating a new anthology of Filipino myths: Kuwento: Lost Things. We’ll hear from three contributors from the anthology: Anna Alves, PhD student in American Studies at Rutgers University, Newark; Sarah Gambito, cofounder of Kundiman; and Melissa R. Sipin, co-editor of Kuwento). Moderated by acclaimed...
July 9, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, 6FL
New York NY 10001
Reading For Nepal
Prajwal Parajuly, Mira Jacob, Muna Gurung, Tuelo Minah, and more
The Nepal earthquake in April was one of the deadliest natural disasters to strike the country. It laid waste to whole villages, took the life of more than 8,000 people, and injured almost 20,000. In May, a second earthquake struck, setting back relief work and demoralizing Nepalis right when the...
June 4, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, 6FL
New York New York 10001
Craysians 101: A Poetry Workshop for Weirdos
Sally Wen Mao
Four evening sessions, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. : Wednesday, May 27 Thursday, May 28 Tuesday, June 2 Wednesday, June 3 Fees & Payment Options: Full: $180 (discount beginning 5-26) Full payment due before first class Deposit: $85 Deposit due by first class. Remainder due by Tuesday, June 2 Outsiders, rebels, and...
May 27, 2015
12:00 AM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, 6FL
New York NY 10001
METROPOLE IV: LOVE AND FAMILY IN TAIWAN AND HAWAII
Julie Wu and Cecily Wong
Taiwan and Hawaii sit on the opposite sides of the Pacific, but these two islands serve as hubs of migration from the rest of Asia and to the United States--as you and your family may know from personal experience! Treat yourselves to a reading on Saturday, May 23 featuring two...
May 23, 2015
3:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 West 27th Street, 6FL
New York NY 10001
Writers-In-Progress: Fiction Writing Workshop
Bill Cheng
***This class is now full*** Seven Fridays from May 22 to July 3, 2015, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Fees & Payment Options: Full: $350 General / $300 Members Full payment due before first class. Deposit: $100 General / $85 Members Deposit due before first class. Remainder due by Friday, June...
May 22, 2015
6:30 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 West 27th Street, 6FL
New York NY 10001
War and Laughter
Alex Gilvarry, Viet Nguyen and Gina Apostol
Join us as writers Alex Gilvarry and Viet Nguyen read novels that laugh in the darkness of American empire, whether it’s the Vietnam War or the War on Terror.
May 5, 2015
7:00 PM
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York NY 10001
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