Past Events

Madcap stories of mayhem! A sculptor turned Brussels sprouts farmer, an indicted movie producer, and an alcoholic kung-fu diva are just a few of the characters in Don Lee'sWrack and Ruin (W.W. Norton, 2008), a suspenseful and satirical comedy of errors that culminates in literature's first-ever windsurfing chase scene. A tragicomic...

This event is open to the public; $5 donation is suggested. Nobel Prize-nominated poet Bei Daoreads with Jennifer Chang, whose debut collection, The History of Anonymity (University of Georgia Press, 2008), explores a nocturnal world of childhood and myth. Often seen as the preeminent Chinese poet of his generation,Bei Dao was born in Beijing in...

Novelist Alexander Chee guest edits a special issue of Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politicsfeaturing New Korean American Fiction and asks what it means to be Korean American. Come hear Alexander Chee, Catherine Chung, Elaine H. Kim, and Jin Yong Sohn read from stories published in the June 2008 issue of Guernica. This event is open...

"No story matters till it is finished and the only stories that need telling are the ones whose endings do not fulfill us," writes Fae Myenne Ng in Steer Toward Rock (Hyperion 2008). Steer is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Ng's first novel Bone (Hyperion 1993), a classic of Asian American literature and not since Bone, has a work so...

This event is open to the public; $5 donation is suggested. In his second novel, The Age of Shiva (W.W. Norton, 2008), Manil Suri chronicles the life of Meera Sawhney, an exquisitely fleshed out woman who comes of age during India's partition. A lush, witty, expansive novel, Shiva spans from Indian politics and mythology to Meera's...

Parents and teachers, having trouble finding Young Adult novels that speak to you and your kids? Fusion Stories is a new website that aims to tell Asian American stories for this generation of young readers. These aren't traditional tales set in Asia or stories of hard-scrabbling immigrants. Instead, Fusion Stories offers fun,...

Drop by this Thursday for three of your favorite things: beer, treats and The Asian American Writers' Workshop. You're invited to our Open House -- a great chance to snack, mingle, and learn more about the Workshop. Meet the Workshop's new Executive Director, Ken Chen, as well as some of...

Join us for an evening of short fiction by The Asian American Writers' Workshop's young adult writers. This past spring, as part of a workshop called UnFairy Tales: The Myths in Myths, students questioned traditional myths and wrote their own. In this final performance, they'll read their own UnFairy Tales,...

Jennifer Sookfong Lee's The End of East(Thomas Dunne Books, 2008) explores isolation, immigration, and romance in Vancouver's Chinatown through the eyes of a Chinese Canadian woman in her early twenties. Set on the outskirts of Ipoh in Malaysia, Preeta Samarasan's The Evening Is The Whole Day, reveals the secrets that lead to...

Poems of loss and love... In The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems (Hanging Loose Press, 2007), Indran Amirthanayagam memorializes the Asian Tsunami in 2004. "I hid your life vest in the death trap on purpose, my love" begins the speaker in "Three Sorries" one of the many spunky and perverse poems in Brenda...

PEN America Center and The Asian American Writers' Workshop co-host a Saturday morning brunch for young writers. Teen writers are cordially invited to break bread with, chat with, and present their writing to novelist Kashmira Sheth (The Keeping Corner) and Simon & Schuster editor Sulay Hernandez (Final Theory). Former microbiologist Kashmira Sheth writes...

The Workshop is getting a makeover -- with the help of Goil Amornvivat of TLC's "Trading Spaces," Parsons The New School for Design, and Design Within Reach Annex. Buy furniture at the DWR Annex in New Jersey from May 3 through 11 and a percentage of sales will go to...

Two writers read from their upcoming works. R. Zamora Linmark is the author of the acclaimed Rolling The R's (Kaya/Muae, 1997), and Prime Time Apparitions (Hanging Loose Press, 2005) as well as Leche (2008) and Evolution of A Sigh which is forthcoming from Hanging Loose Press in April 2008. Nina Revoyr is the author of Necessary Hunger (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998) and Southland (Akashic Books, 2003),...

Edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal, and Ravi Shankar Hosted by W.W. Norton & Company and the Rubin Museum of Art with The Asian American Writers' Workshop Multiple readings, book signing, DJ, bar, celebration. Language for a New Century celebrates the artistic and cultural forces flourishing today in the East, bringing...

A night of Southeast Asian American memoir. Six years ago at the age of twenty-one, Jaed Muncharoen Coffin, a half-Thai American man, left New England to visit his mother's native village of Panomsarakram-thus fulfilling a familial obligation. A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants (Da Capo, 2008), part armchair travel, part coming-of-age story, is...

In conversation, chaired by Harold Augenbraum. Three Asian American women writers address questions of literary form and taboo, body and community, voice and text, dream and reality, and what it is to write across multiple borders. Born in 1951 in Allahabad, India, Meena Alexander began writing poetry at ten years old. While...

Join us for a sumptuous evening of food-themed tales. In The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (Twelve, 2008), New York Timesreporter Jennifer 8. Lee chronicles her search for the world's best Chinese restaurant with a mix of in-depth research and entertaining personal anecdotes. Culinary historian, Chitrita Banerji has narrated her love of food in several volumes her latest being Eating...

Curated by Tracy K. Smith and Tina Chang Cosponsored by Cave Canem The Asian American and African American communities gather for a night of brilliant poetry. Readings by Meena Alexander, Jeffery Renard Allen, Regie Cabico, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, R. Erica Doyle and Bakar Wilson. Meena Alexander's poetry includes Illiterate Heart, winner of a 2002 PEN Open Book Award, Raw...

An evening of fiction and poetry. In This Is a Bust (Kaya Press, 2007), Ed Lin turns the conventions of hard-boiled pulp stories on their head by exploring the unexotic and very real complexities of New York City's Chinatown, circa 1976, through the eyes of a Chinese-American cop. Mouth (Kaya Press, 2007), Lisa Chen's debut collection of poetry,...

In a discussion with Executive Director of the National Book Foundation, Harold Augenbraum, Choi will talk about her latest book, A Person of Interest (Penguin, 2008), a vision of a life turned upside-down in the aftermath of a Unabomber-type attack. The novel explores the ethnic, social and psychological dimensions of...

Join us for an evening of poetry. Pinocchio, Madama Butterfly's son, and a boy clown are a few of the characters that Jennifer Kwon Dobbs imagines in Paper Pavilion (White Pine Press, 2007). Playful, erotic, at times mysterious, Li-Young Lee's Behind My Eyes (W.W. Norton, 2008) describes the immanent value...

A free workshop for teachers of high school seniors and first-year college students. Complimentary copies of Workshop anthologies with teachers' guides. Call 212.494.0061 to register. FREE

Celebrating a decade of excellence in Asian American Literature. Congratulations to the 2007 Asian American Literary Award winners, Linh Dinh, Amitav Ghosh, and Samrat Upadhyay. Presentation of winning books, cocktail reception, booksigning and surprise announcement of the Members' Choice Workshop Award! $12 general, $10 members, Free for students with ID Thanks to Singha...

Four monologues by Mary Beth Brooker, D.W. Gibson, Anoo Siddiqi and Tracy K. Smith about their relationships with their fathers, performed by Nandita Chandra, Craig Edwards, Mark Gowers, and Derek Lucci. Directed by Dawn Akemi Saito. Mary Beth Brooker Mary Beth Brooker, writer, visual artist, mother, lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with...

A staged reading, directed by James Yaegashi A hot summer day somewhere in nowhere Japan. A friend waits. A friend comes. A friend leaves. This simple story of two friends humorously and poignantly reminds us of the sweetness and pain of connecting with another human being. Written early in his...

Wouldn't quit the day job--but you love poetry nevertheless. A panel discussion with Alice Quinn, (Poetry Society of America/The New Yorker), Deborah Garrison (poet/Alfred A. Knopf editor), and Joseph Legaspi (poet/Kundiman codirector), moderated by Quang Bao on getting your poems and manuscripts edited and published. A frank conversation about creating a life as a poet, including residencies,...

6pm (VIP cocktail reception), 7:30pm (Reading) In partnership with The Consulate General of Canada - New York, The Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Singha Beer and Moti Hasson Gallery. One of the most exciting voices in contemporary literature, Michael Ondaatje reads from his favorite works. A stunning fusion of jazz rhythms,...

Open mic. Poetry. Found words. Prose. Drama. Music by DJ Justin Woo. Please arrive early to sign up for the open mic. Two Warriors is a New-York based poetry duo that found life at the Asian American Writers' Workshop in 2002 by bringing together stories of love, peace, family, tribute...

The Workshop is pleased to support the 4th Biennial APIA Spoken Word and Poetry Summit! The APIA Spoken Word and Poetry Summit is the largest national gathering of APIA spoken word artists, performers, writers, community leaders and arts educators. It is a three-day event with a mission to challenge the...

Co-sponsored by Kundiman -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Continuing our support for emerging writers, we are excited to present a showcase of poets and fiction writers from our workshops, with Nicholas Chung, Ilisa Lam, Mrigaa Sethi, Antonius Wiriajada and Helena Zhang. See them here first before they get too hot to touch! Nicholas Chung lives...