Queens Library Presents... Susan Choi and Cecily Wong

Queens Library Presents… Susan Choi and Cecily Wong, two successful and acclaimed authors, for a fascinating discussion about their unique experiences, their journey to become successful writers and the challenges that they continue to face.

Please arrive at 6 pm if you would like to order food and drinks from Manducatis menu.

The night’s topics will include….

Part 1. “Straddling Worlds”. The two writers will discuss what it means to straddle the two worlds that created them and the impacted on their works. Susan Choi will discuss how growing up in the American heartland and being of Korean heritage affected her story telling. While Cecily Wong will share how her Chinese heritage and growing up Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest shaped her writing.

Part 2. “Challenges Facing Asian American Writers”. What are the challenges that Asian American writers face to get published? Do Asian American writers face unique challenges? Do Asian Americans have an advantage? Cecily and Susan share their experiences, their views on current issues, how they continue to overcome obstacles every day.

Part 3. “Open Q&A”. Cecily and Susan will take questions from the audience.

About Susan Choi

Susan Choi was born in South Bend, Indiana, and raised there and in Houston, Texas. She studied literature at Yale and writing at Cornell, and worked for several years as a fact-checker for The New Yorker.

Her first novel, The Foreign Student, won the Asian-American Literary Award for fiction, and her second novel, American Woman, was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. With David Remnick she co-edited the anthology Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker. Her third novel, A Person of Interest, was a finalist for the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award. In 2010 she was named the inaugural recipient of the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award.

A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, she lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Pete Wells, and their sons. - See more at: http://www.susanchoi.com/ or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/susanchoiauthor

About Cecily Wong

Cecily Wong is the author of the novel, DIAMOND HEAD, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The LA Review of Books, Self Magazine, Bustle, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of Barnard College and lives and writes in New York. http://www.cecilywong.com/ or Twitter: https://twitter.com/cecilyannwong