I have no idea why this post got so popular, but this event tomorrow is going to be amazing! This book was a blast to read. I learned a ton, and I can't wait to talk w/ M about contemporary China, class and borders, film and music in literature, and the story set in Pittsburgh. 7pm tmw at White Whale in Bloomfield.
“Deeply felt and grounded in an intimate acquaintance with contemporary China, these wide-ranging stories portray villagers, protesters, artists, and petty thieves alike with empathy and grace. Nothing is easy for them, and the questions they raise are not easy for us. What an absorbing, probing debut! Wonderful.”—Gish Jen, author of Bad Bad Girl
I’m loving M Lin’s story collection The Memory Museum, and it’s really neat that the author (and book) has so many Pittsburgh connections. In her Instagram post, the author mentioned Wang Xiaobo and Li Yinhe, who studied at the University of Pittsburgh. I should also mention that Li-Young Lee began writing poetry in Pittsburgh, and I recall meeting Huang Xiang and seeing his House Poem when I was an undergrad at Pitt.
This is going to be a great event, and I hope you can make it!
Pittsburgh is where my partner grew up, and i’ve been hearing about yinz for 11 years! when we went to the burgh in 2016, i was ready to finally meet the historically jewish neighborhood Squirrel Hill. but as we turned off the freeway in the dark of the night, the first storefront i saw was a Chinese bakery, and a Chinese bakery meant there was enough of a whole community to support such an establishment. not surprisingly, we later discovered many more Chinese restaurants on Forbes and Murray avenue. it was such an interesting trip for both of us - the mix of the old and the new, of the east and west, of a neighborhood and a city in flux. pittsburgh as a city has gone through such impressive transformations in the past, and somehow the lives of both of us felt intertwined with it.
so there’s a story in The Memory Museum set in Pittsburgh, in which a secondary character stocks shelves in the Chinese supermarket on Forbes avenue. and Pittsburgh has a place in contemporary Chinese literature, too, because of Wang Xiaobo and Li Yinhe, who studied at University of Pittsburgh in the 1980s. this is all to say - i’m so very excited to come to Pittsburgh!
please join me and a fellow short story writer @robertyune who generously agreed to read my book “sight unseen” at the wonderful @whitewhalebks . i’m looking forward to our conversation, and to seeing all of you there!!
One of my favorite things about spring: just about every year, a pair of strawberry finches makes a nest and lays eggs and raises their babies, all in front of my kitchen window.
This is actually the best photo I took at #awp26 . The contrast, the color, the composition--it all just came together. I wish I'd had a better camera and I'd asked the fellow permission to post, but as they say, the best camera is the one you've got. And the best moment is sometimes the one you've got.
I was mostly photographing the wooden robot because I found it charming. A few seconds later, we were seated at our table.
Easily the best #AWP reading I've ever attended, and I've been doing this since 2005. #awp26 Special thanks to all the folks who went above and beyond to make this evening happen.
