Events

• April 18, 6:30 PM

  An Evening with Han Kang

  Join us for a rare American visit by Han Kang, one of the most prominent novelists in contemporary world literature. Han’s first book, The Vegetarian (Hogarth 2016)--a phantasmagoric fable about a wife whose carnivorous renunciation disrupts her marriage in ways whose consequences are ultimately grotesque--won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. Shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, her newest book, The White Book (Hogarth 2019), a woman at a writer’s residency in snow-covered Warsaw meditates on the color white as a way of processing traumas that have haunted her family. Moderated by former AAWW Fellow E. Tammy Kim, a contributor to The New Yorker and New York Times Magazine. Co-sponsored by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI). Please note the 6:30pm start time! RESERVE A SEAT! $5 SUGGESTED DONATION | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Essentially a letter from Han to her sister, Han Kang’s The White Book offers a lyrical and disquieting exploration of grief that functions as “a secular prayer book” (The Guardian) and contains “some of Han’s best writing to date” (NPR). As Katie Kitamura wrote in the New York Times Book Review: “Formally daring, emotionally devastating and deeply political...In this subtle and searching novel, Kang, through Smith, proposes a model of genuine empathy, one that insists on the power of shared experience but it not predicated on the erasure of difference.” A participant in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Han has won the Man Booker International Prize, the Yi Sang Literary Award, the Today’s Young Artist Award, and the Manhae Prize for Literature. A professor at the Seoul Institute of the Arts, Han Kang is translated by Deborah Smith. Moderated by former AAWW Fellow E. Tammy Kim, who has written about the Koreas for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. E. Tammy Kim is a freelance reporter and contributing opinion writer for The New York Times whose work has also appeared in The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker. She reviewed Han Kang's Human Acts for The Nation in 2017, and previously worked as a social-justice lawyer. Read her writings as an AAWW Open City Fellow here. /\ /\ \/\/ \/\/ This event will be livestreamed on the Asian American Writers’ Facebook page. NOTE ON ACCESSIBILITY *The space is wheelchair accessible. No stairs. Direct elevator from ground floor to 6th floor. *We strongly encourage all participants of the space/event to be scent-free. If you all have any other specific questions about accessibility, please email Tiffany Le at tle@aaww.org with any questions on reserving priority seating. /\ /\ \/\/ \/\/..
  
• April 22, 7:00 PM

  Guernica Magazine's "Climate Fiction": A Special Issue

  Co-sponsored by the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Climate Working Group and Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, and Asian American Writer’s Workshop. “These stories exemplify the genre of ‘climate fiction,’ or ‘cli-fi,’ by exploring what the world might become if climate change continues unabated. Its roots are in science fiction, but here, it’s tinged, beautifully so, with realism and the supernatural. At its best, cli-fi conjures, spell-like, meditative spaces in which we ponder our deepest fears before emerging transfigured.” —Amy Brady, from the introduction to Guernica magazine’s “Climate Fiction: A Special Issue” On Earth Day, join us for readings, conversations, and a reception to celebrate the launch of Guernica magazine’s “Climate Fiction: A Special Issue.” Contributors and experts from across disciplines will discuss the importance of climate fiction for climate action. We will hear from writer Helen Phillips, novelist Pitchaya Sudbanthad, and photographer/filmmaker Nathan Kensinger, whose new works are featured in this issue. They will engage in conversations about their craft and climate advocacy with writers, scientists, anthropologists, and environmental justice scholars Ken Chen, Karen Holmberg, Eugenia Kisin, Jerome Whitington, and Guernica Deputy Publisher Amy Brady. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Book Culture...
  
• April 24, 7:00 PM

  Armenian Genocide Remembrance

  Join us for a special reading marking Armenian Genocide Remembrance day, the annual holiday to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Organized by poet Alina Gregorian, this night of remembrance features Lambda and PEN finalist Nancy Agabian, poet Christopher Janigian, poet Lola Koundakjian, and nonfiction writer and musician Raffi Joe Wartanian. RESERVE A SEAT! $5 SUGGESTED DONATION | OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Nancy Agabian is the author of Princess Freak (2000, Beyond Baroque Books) a collection of poetry, prose, and performance texts, and a memoir, Me as her again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter (2008, Aunt Lute Books), which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Nonfiction and shortlisted for a Saroyan International Writing Prize. Both books tell stories of coming-of-age and generational trauma (resulting from the Armenian genocide of 1915), with a focus on gender and sexuality. Nancy's recent novel, The Fear of Large and Small Nations, tells the story of an abusive relationship that illuminates the complex, often contradictory processes of self-determination that bind the Armenian diaspora and its homeland. It was a finalist for the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially-Engaged Fiction. A recent nominee for a Pushcart Prize, Nancy teaches creative writing at New York University and The New School. Read her writing about nationalism and Armenian coffee in AAWW’s The Margins. Alina Gregorian is a poet and artist. She is the author of Flags for Adjectives (Diez) and Navigational Clouds (Monk Books). Her first gallery exhibition was Talk to Me in Parsley and Tambourines: Artists of the Armenian Diaspora at Babycastles. Christopher Janigian's poems appear in Boston Review, PEN Poetry Series, Poor Claudia, Web Conjunctions, and Prelude, among other places, and he holds degrees from Brown and Columbia. Lola Koundakjian enjoys reading in her city of adoption. She writes in Western Armenian and in English, is co-curator of a poetry series at the Zohrab Information Center and director of the online Armenian Poetry Project. She is the author of The Accidental Observer and Advice to a Poet. Writer and musician Raffi Joe Wartanian is the grandson and great-grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors from Adana, Hajin, Kharpert, and Zara. His work has appeared at Lincoln Center, The Baltimore Sun, and No, Dear Magazine among others and has received support from the Fulbright Program, Eurasia Partnership Foundation, and Humanity in Action. Raffi is currently pursuing an MFA in nonfiction creative writing at Columbia University where he has taught and organized creative writing workshops at Rikers Island Jail Complex and the Manhattan VA. He is also developing new instrumental compositions on oud and guitar, as well as a feature screenplay about a Texas gun show. This event will be livestreamed on the Asian American Writers’ Facebook page. NOTE ON ACCESSIBILITY *The space is wheelchair accessible. No stairs. Direct elevator from ground floor to 6th floor. *We strongly encourage all participants of the space/event to be scent-free. If you all have any other specific questions about accessibility, please email Tiffany Le at tle@aaww.org with any questions on reserving priority seating. /\ /\ \/\/ \/\/ ..