Past Events

LEAVING & RETURNING TO CHINA
Alan Chin, Suzanne Ma, Val Wang, and Wah-Ming Chang
So if China’s going to be the capital of the 21st Century, what does it mean to leave this new metropole or come back? Photographer Alan Chin and writers Suzanne Ma and Val Wang, moderated by Wah-Ming Chang, touch upon what it means to immigrate from China and what it means...
April 27, 2015
7:00 PM
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York NY 10001
Dissent Spring 2015 Launch: Border Crossings
Vivek Bald, Gaiutra Bahadur, Jack Tchen, Minh-Ha T. Pham, and Michelle Chen
We are joining teams with Dissent Magazine to celebrate the launch of the magazine's Spring issue, “Border Crossings,” featuring a discussion with Vivek Bald, Gaiutra Bahadur, Jack Tchen, and Minh-Ha T. Pham, moderated by Michelle Chen. The panel will start at 7:30 p.m. sharp. To read Dissent’s Spring issue for...
April 22, 2015
7:00 PM
Local 61
61 Bergen St
Brooklyn NY 11201
SOUTH ASIAN ODYSSEYS
Tania James, Amit Chaudhuri, and Durba Mitra
Join us as we travel from the protected forest lands of South India to the inner life of a wandering Desi urbanite in London. Tania James’s lyrical new novel The Tusk That Did the Damage portrays the tense and complicated politics at Kavanar Wildlife Park, where bull elephants trample visitors, find themselves studied...
April 16, 2015
7:00 PM
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York NY 10001
AAWW at AWP! Mapping New Territories: Diasporic Writers from Regions of Conflict
Kazim Ali, Hayan Charara, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Ken Chen, Mong-Lan
The AAWW at the 2015 AWP Conference and Bookfair! In the last few years, we've seen a rise in global conflicts (the protests in Cairo during Arab Spring and self-immolation of Tibetan monks in China). Diasporic writers, such as Asian and Arab American writers, have had a profound and conflicted...
April 10, 2015
10:30 AM
Minneapolis Convention Center, Room 200 B&C, Level 2 F143
1301 Second Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55403
Belladonna/AAWW Reading
Betsy Fagin, Cathy Park Hong, Michael Leong, and Dorothy Tse
We join forces with feminist poetry collective Belladonna for a night of surrealist and experimental writing by Betsy Fagin, Cathy Park Hong, Michael Leong, and Dorothy Tse, who is visiting from Hong Kong. Founded at Bluestockings in 1999, Belladonna has showcased over 200 writers internationally, who all share an intense desire to be...
April 2, 2015
7:00 PM
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York NY 10001
Undocupoets Petition Reading
Wo Chan, Sonia Guiñansaca, Jennifer Tamayo, and Javier Zamora. Hosted by Christopher Soto.
Did you know that many writing contests require you to be a US citizen? While this requirement may initially seem benign, these contests end up excluding millions of writers of color from applying every year. More than ten million migrants a year are explicitly barred from submitting to both artists...
March 27, 2015
7:00 PM
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York NY 10001
GRANTA INDIA LAUNCH
Ian Jack, Amitava Kumar, Hari Kunzru and Kalpana Narayanan
When journalist Ian Jack first visited India in 1976, he found steam locomotives, a sluggish economy, and a national literature that had been largely written by outsiders--say, J.G. Farrell, E.M. Forster, or Larry Collins. In the last few decades, Indian writing has boomed: consider the rise of Arundhati Roy, Salman...
March 26, 2015
7:00 PM
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York NY 10001
Love, Time Travel, and Your Desi Family
Mira Jacob, Sandip Roy, and Tanwi Nandini Islam
Celebrate Valentine’s Day by hearing two debut novelists—Mira Jacob and Sandip Roy—read about time-hopping stories about love, grief, and the complications of the South Asian immigrant family. Mira Jacob’s The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing begins when Amina--30-ish and single—flies home to New Mexico to visit her South Indian parents: her...
February 19, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York New York 10001
ON NOT BREAKING YOUR HEART DURING THE APOCALYPSE
Marie Mutsuki Mockett and Emily St. John Mandel
Sure, the end of the world is nigh, but then what? Two award-winning writers—Marie Mutsuki Mockett and Emily St. John Mandel—read books about the hopeful depths and consolations offered by art and spirituality after the apocalypse. In Emily St. John Mandel’s novel Station Eleven, a viral pathogen has killed 99%...
February 3, 2015
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 W. 27th Street, Ste. 600
New York New York 10001
POETRY POETRY III
Kimiko Hahn, Nicole Sealey, and Charif Shanahan
Hailed as "one of the most fascinating female poets of our time" (BOMB), Kimiko Hahn reads from her new poetry collection with emerging poets Nicole Sealey and Charif Shanahan. At the intersection of neuroscience and classical Japanese aesthetics, Kimiko’s new book Brain Fever meditates on the nature of the human...
December 16, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street
New York New York 10001
THE COUNTERCULTURALISTS IV: SPACES + SUBCULTURES
Charlie Ahearn, Yasmin Ramirez, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Humera Afridi, Tanwi Nandini Islam
People of color make up almost 70% of New York, but ethnic neighborhoods, like Manhattan's Chinatown, are sometimes seen as exotic, abject spaces. What if we thought of them instead as alternative publics—spaces that disrupt the territorial edges of the rest of the city? For the Asian American Writers' Workshop's final...
December 9, 2014
7:00 PM
University Settlement
184 Eldridge (at Rivington)
New York New York
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Avant-garde of One
Thomas Beard, Christian Hawkey, Myung Mi Kim, Amy Hollywood, Crystal Parikh, Jennifer Firestone, Tonya Foster, Alison Roh Park
December 4th, 2014 DATE CHANGE: December 5, 2014 LOCATION: Dumbo Sky 10 Jay Street, #903 Brooklyn, NY 11201 Some thirty years after her sudden death, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's work remains a force in the fields of visual arts, avant-garde poetry, and feminist theory. From her early scholarship on French...
December 5, 2014
7:00 PM
TBD
TBD
New York
THE COUNTERCULTURALISTS II: REBELS + BOHEMIANS
Urayoán Noel, Carolina González, Manan Ahmed
The second event in The Asian American Writers' Workshop's Counterculturalists series highlights some of the rebels and bohemians of color who are often erased from histories of the left and the avant-garde. Watch a clip from American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs, the new documentary film about 98-year-old Detroit-based...
December 3, 2014
6:00 PM
El Museo del Barrio
1230 5th Ave
New York New York
POETRY POETRY II: Claudia Rankine, Hoa Nguyen, Rigoberto Gonzalez
Claudia Rankine, Hoa Nguyen, Rigoberto Gonzalez
“The world is wrong…. Who did what to whom on which day? ... Did I hear what I think I heard? Did that just come out of my mouth, his mouth, your mouth?” So writes Claudia Rankine in her new book Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press 2014), just short-listed...
November 14, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street, 6FL
New York New York 10001
The Poem and Social Space: AAWW at Facing Race
Ken Chen, Lupe Mendez, Janine Joseph, Randall Horton
The poem can mobilize us in a social space, the poet Myung Mi Kim tells us. Taking that cue, how do we consciously use poetry to that end? How do we embed writing into the social justice process, and have it enter new spaces?Presenters will begin with a discussion of...
November 14, 2014
1:45 PM
Hilton Anatole
2201 N Stemmons Fwy
Dallas TX
WHERE POC BEATS MFA: CELEBRATING VONA
Elmaz Abinader, Cynthia Dewi Oka, Mai Perkins, and Seve Torres
So you read Junot Díaz’s essay MFA vs. POC, but did you know that it was originally published in a special anthology of work by writers of color? Join us as we celebrate the legacy of Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA), a vital nonprofit for writers of color...
November 13, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writer’s Workshop
112 West 27th Street
New York City
Sri Lanka: Beyond an Uncivil Season
Rohini Mohan, Indran Amirthanayagam, Leslie Jamison, Somini Sengupta
Come chomp on some Sri Lankan food as we ask, What happens in the aftermath of a three-decade long war? It’s a question at the center of Rohini Mohan’s new book, The Seasons of Trouble. The result of five years of reporting and research, her devastating and beautifully written account closes in...
November 1, 2014
3:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th Street, 6FL
New York NY 10001
Asian Americana: The Invention of the Model Minority Stereotype
Ellen D. Wu
You know the "model minority" story: Asian Americans as assimilated, professional, quiet. Ellen Wu's new book The Color of Success shows that this wasn't just a chance myth, but a concerted effort of liberal journalists, government officials, and scientists to create a narrative to combat and control the black liberation...
October 30, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th St 6th Floor
New York
WHO WE BE: A NEAR HISTORY OF RACIAL COUNTERCULTURE
Jeff Chang, Jessica Hagedorn, Vijay Prashad, Ayesha Siddiqi, Jay Smooth, Sonia Guiñansaca, and Hank Willis Thomas
Hey Fam. You gotta drop whatever you're doing and come celebrate Jeff Chang's new book Who Who Be: The Colorization of America. The author of Can't Stop: Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Jeff now presents a recent cultural history of American race in Who We Be. We're...
October 28, 2014
7:00 PM
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
236 E 3rd St
New York NY 10009
The Body Vietnam
Lan Cao, Paul Tran
The body carries memory, trauma, war, escape, repression. To excavate it is a political act. Lan Cao's new novel, The Lotus and the Storm, pulls the viewer back and forth between contemporary America and the war in Vietnam, following a family as they uncover truths about the atrocities there. Paul Tran...
October 24, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor
New York New York
Crushes and Mountains
Elisha Lim and Vivek Shraya
Canadian-based artists Elisha Lim and Vivek Shraya celebrate the publication of their new books, 100 Crushes and She of the Mountains, with queer prayers, songs, films, and readings. We're co-hosting the event at Barnard College.
October 21, 2014
7:00 PM
Barnard College – James Room 4th FL
3009 Broadway
New York 10027
Boat, Passage
Luis H. Francia, Jennifer Hayashida, Efren Cruzada, Kevin Estrada
Hamlet, The Beatles, the LA Rebellion, the War in Iraq: Luis H. Francia's new book, Tattered Boat, moves across his many interests with a careful and confident eye. Poet, translator, and activist Jennifer Hayashida will parse the poems and politics.  Francia will also be joined on stage by two younger poets...
October 14, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
110-112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor
New York New York
Metropole III: Karachi Crossroads
Sadia Shepard, Bilal Tanweer, Durba Mitra
Among the many characters in The Scatter Here Is Too Great, Bilal Tanweer's new novel, is the city of Karachi itself: its diverse, thriving population. The episodic novel follows a series of characters and voices after a bomb goes off at Karachi Cantt station.  Sadia Shepard will show an excerpt of her gorgeous film cycle The Other...
October 7, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th St 6th Floor
New York NY
Workshop: Two Truths and a Lie
Bushra Rehman
Two Truths and a Lie: Writing Memoir and Autobiographical Fiction Six Mondays from October 6- November 10, 2014, 7PM-9PM at AAWW Fee: $275 General/$250 AAWW Members Deposit: $50 General Deposit/$40 Members Writing from life can be a tricky business. There are people to protect, faulty memories of events, and the pitfalls of self-censorship. In...
October 6, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th St 6th Floor
N
Open Mic: Burqa Project Edition
Ayesha Akhtar
AAWW’s open mic series provides a safe space to forge new art and communities. We’ve seen unpublished writers and legendary authors, sparked book deals, and hosted comedy, spoken word, music, poetry, memoir, fiction, and more. Featured presenter Ayesha Akhtar will break down The Burqa Project, in which she asks men...
September 30, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th St 6th Floor
New York
The Popular is Political
Roxane Gay, Alexander Chee
You love the sound of "Blurred Lines" but hate the words. You're troubled by The Help. Where do feminism and diversity fit into this crazy world of pop culture? Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist doesn't offer up definitive answers, it provokes us into conversation. Alexander Chee, author of Edinburgh and the great blog Koreanish, joins her on...
September 22, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th St 6th Floor
New York NY
Blind Musicians and The Peshawar Bazaar
Kamila Shamsie, Hari Kunzru
Hari Kunzru has gone digital with his multimedia essay “Twice Upon a Time” for the Atavist. The Atavist is going print with their first paper book, Kamila Shamsie's A God in Every Stone. Kunzru's essay is a take on New York through music and memory, with the sounds of the blind musician Moondog....
September 18, 2014
7:00 PM
McNally Jackson
52 Prince St
New York NY 10012
These Sacred Bones
R.A. Villanueva, Janine Joseph, Sarah Gambito, Joseph Legaspi, John Murillo, Patrick Rosal, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai
Part religious meditation, part pop culture, R.A. Villanueva's Prairie Schooner Book Prize-winning debut Reliquaria uses the body as a starting point for everything else. AAWW is toasting the launch of his book with a stellar lineup of poets presenting their work with him. Award-winning performance poet Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai will emcee the...
September 13, 2014
7:00 PM
Dumbo Sky
10 Jay St, #903
Brooklyn New York
Presence and Poetry
Dorothy J. Wang, Sarah Gambito, Ken Chen
Do we read white poets the same way we do poets of color? Dorothy J. Wang’s Thinking Its Presence: Form, Race, And Subjectivity In Contemporary Asian American Poetry calls for a radical rethinking of how we read American poetry. Writers of color are seen as secondary to those who are...
August 26, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th St 6th Floor
New York
Mouth to Mouth Open Mic
Apogee Journal, DarkMatter, Christopher Soto
Mouth to Mouth is AAWW’s open mic series. We provide a safe space to forge new art and communities. We’ve seen unpublished writers and legendary authors, sparked book deals, and hosted comedy, spoken word, music, poetry, memoir, fiction, and more. DarkMatter is a queer South Asian performance and literary arts duo made up of Alok...
August 13, 2014
7:00 PM
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
112 W 27th St 6th Floor
New York
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