Don't miss: The 'Chindia' Dialogues

Coming up this weekend: Asia Society will bring 20 leading authors and critical thinkers from China and India to NYC to engage in vital literary and cultural dialogue, as part of the inaugural Asian Arts & Ideas Forum: The 'Chindia' Dialogues. Here are two events not to miss:

UNDERGROUND & UNDERCOVER: LITERARY REPORTAGE
Friday, November 4, 12:30-2:00 PM
Free. No reservation required.
Featuring Siddhartha Deb, Yu Hua, Murong Xuecun, and Zha Jianying

©2011 Asia Society

Literary reporters bear witness to the effects of modernization – from massive internal migration and the commercialization of culture to the ravages of corruption and environmental degradation – with novelist/essayist Yu Hua (China In Ten Words); author and media critic Zha Jianying (Tide Players, and a participant in PEN's 2011 World Voices Festival event: China in Two Acts); Siddhartha Deb, who survived a stint as a “cybercoolie” at a call center in Mumbai to write The Beautiful and the Damned; and China’s pioneering cyber novelist-turned-investigative journalist Murong Xuecun (best-selling novel, Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu), who reported on a mafia-style “direct-selling” pyramid scam in Jiangxi that exposed the inequities in China's capitalistic development. Moderated by Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society’s Center for U.S-China Relations. 

Asia Society is located at 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street (directions)│212-517-ASIA│www.AsiaSociety.org/artsandideas


AMITAV GHOSH IN CONVERSATION WITH JONATHAN SPENCE
Thursday, November 3, 6:30-8:00 PM
Tickets purchasable here. $15 (non-members), $12 (students/seniors), $10 (members)

©2011 Asia Society

One of India’s best known writers, Amitav Ghosh, joins leading Chinese scholar and Sterling Professor of History at Yale Jonathan Spence to discuss Ghosh’s landmark historical novel, River of Smoke (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, October 2011), the Sino-Indian relations during the Opium Wars, and the relevance of the legacy of capitalism and colonialism to Asia’s emerging role in the 21st Century. Introduced by Orville Schell, Director of Asia Society’s Center for U.S.-China Relations. 

Asia Society is located at 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street (directions)│212-517-ASIA│www.AsiaSociety.org/artsandideas

For a complete list of 'Chindia' events, visit Asia Society's Calendar 

Brian Dettmer: Solo Show in Chicago

If you happen to be in the Chicago area between Nov. 4 through 20, don't miss Paper Back, Brian Dettmer's solo show at the Packer Shopf Gallery:

Here's a quotation from Brian's artist's statement:

The book’s intended function has decreased and the form remains linear in a non-linear world. By altering physical forms of information and shifting preconceived functions, new and unexpected roles emerge. This is the area I currently operate in. Through meticulous excavation or concise alteration I edit or dissect communicative objects or systems such as books, maps, tapes and other media. The medium’s role transforms. Its content is recontextualized and new meanings or interpretations emerge.

Brian's art graced the cover and inner pages of PEN America: The Good Books. Learn more about his surgical processes by watching this CBS Evening News report and by reading "Postmodern Deconstruction" from The New Yorker.

New Members New Books

Tonight PEN will be welcoming its newest members at PowerHouse Arena. Among them are poets Sandra Beasley, whose poem "Unit of Measure" is a must-read, and Terrence A. Hayes, a judge of this year's PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. Also, check out an interview with new member Teju Cole on his novel Open City, and an excerpt from frequent Festival participant, Peter Godwin's The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe.

PEN Contributors Featured at AAWW Literary Festival

The Asian American Writers Workshop Literary Festival happened this weekend, and some of PEN America’s favorite authors were honored!

Frequent contributor Jessica Hagedorn received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Check out her response for issue 14’s forum.

Favorite poet Kimiko Hahn, recipient of the 2008 PEN/Voelker Award for Poetry, was honored for her collection Toxic Flora.

Check out Amitava Kumar’s essay, “A Collaborator in Kashmir” from PEN America Issue 10, and support him at the festival this weekend—his book A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb won the nonfiction award.

For more information about the prizewinners and the festival click here. 

(credit: Marion Ettlinger)