The John Fowles Center for Creative Writing at Chapman University promotes and advances the discipline of creative writing in all its aspects: fiction, poetry, drama, creative nonfiction, and film. Each spring, the Center invites a distinguished group of national and international writers to participate in its annual reading series, giving students and the community the opportunity to be exposed to and gain a greater appreciation for cultural and societal diversity in literature.
To kick off the 2013 series, renowned author Maxine Hong Kingston will be reading excerpts from her work on Monday, February 18.
Kingston is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. She has written three novels and several works of nonfiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United States. Her feminist memoir The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts explores the ways in which gender and ethnicity affect the lives of women and is reportedly one of the most commonly taught texts in modern university education.
Kingston’s contributions to Chinese American literature have earned her numerous honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Woman Warrior, the National Book Award for her novel China Men, and the PEN West Award in fiction for Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book.
The reading will begin at 7:00 p.m. in Memorial Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information about this event or future speakers in the 2013 reading series, visit the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing website.
What an interesting subject! I wish I could be there.