Connecticut College Hosts Charles Yu at The Garde Arts Center
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Acclaimed author Charles Yu will discuss his latest work, Interior Chinatown, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 5 at The Garde Arts Center. Interior Chinatown was this year’s selection for One Book One Region 2021. Yu will be joined by Ayako Takamori, Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Culture at Connecticut College, for an interactive Q&A session on stage.
A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Yu went on to earn a J.D. from Columbia University and practiced corporate law before eventually returning to his creative work as a fiction writer and story editor for Westworld, where his work was nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards. Yu is the author of four books and has written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebook Watch and Adult Swim. His fiction and non-fiction works have appeared in a number of publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Time and Ploughshares.
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction in 2020, Interior Chinatown is written in the form of a screenplay, telling the story of an aspiring Asian American actor who discovers the secret history of Chinatown and the buried legacy of his family. Throughout the story’s many layers, Yu offers a poignant picture on the role of family in shaping identities, as well as a critique of the external stereotyping and internalized racism that have defined the experience of Asian Americans for almost 200 years.
One Book One Region of Eastern Connecticut is now in its 19th year. This is the sixth year that Connecticut College has partnered with this initiative to bring community members and the college community together to discuss ideas, broaden appreciation of reading and break down barriers among people. In addition to this year's selection of Interior Chinatown, previous summer read selections were Crazy Brave by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo; Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka; Exit West by Mohsin Hamid; and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
One Book One Region is made possible through Connecticut Humanities; Eversource; the Libraries of Eastern CT; the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; Waterford Walmart; and Connecticut College’s Office of the President. Bank Square Books arranged for the purchase of Interior Chinatown for the Class of 2025 and their advisers.
This event will be in person and also live streamed at onebookoneregion.org. Questions may be submitted in advance to onebookoneregionct@gmail.com. Please visit gardearts.org for Covid-19 policies and precautions.
September 22, 2021