Come on by to the second BooksNJ, which is happening on Saturday, June 12, at the Paramus Public Library. I’ll be on the panel Life on the Turnpike with John Hilferty, Jon Michaud, and Pamela Redmond Satran between 2 and 2:45pm. There are over 100 authors at the event, so it should be a pretty good time. The event runs from 1-5pm.
[PDF: full schedule]
Next Saturday (May 28) at 2pm, I’ll be at the Atlantic City Free Public Library to do a reading/Q&A for Everything Asian and everything not Asian, too. The nice folks at the library put together this nice flyer:
[in PDF]
So if you’re in the mood to gamble away your life savings, stop by the library before you do so.
Also, an advance notice — next month, on Saturday, June 12 between 1-5pm, BooksNJ 2011 will be held in Paramus, NJ. In addition to myself, lots of fine authors will be in attendance, so mark it down in your calendars.
For the last month, I could see the end, that moment when I’d write the last sentence of my second novel. I imagined there would be exaltation, relief, a supreme sense of satisfaction rolled into that single keystroke when I’d tap the period and put an end to this work that began on August 11, 2002.
[more]
An essay for The Nervous Breakdown about the experience of writing the second book. It’s mostly not pretty.
It starts with the words His father was against the idea, and it ends with and so was he. In between, there are about 121K words, three parts, 26 chapters plus an epilogue.
The first draft of my second novel is done.
[Fireworks, flourishes, etc.]
Of course, the job is hardly finished, as now the real work comes — rewriting. But the first draft is finished. It may not be pretty, and it may not have a title, but goddamn it, it’s done!
On November 7, I participated in the Page Turner Festival in DUMBO, reading with the poet Luis Francia and the stand-up comic Hari Kondabolu (middle initial K.). It was a wonderful event in every way except for one — Richard Price never showed up. A shame, as I had a number of books and DVDs for him to sign! In any case, check out the photos below.
The good folks at The Nervous Breakdown are currently featuring me on their home page and in the Fiction section for the following:
I’ll be partaking in the second annual Page Turner Festival, the Asian American Literary Festival presented by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. Check out my event below and be there!
OPEN CITY: The Diaspora Next Door
November 7, 4pm – powerHouse Ground Floor
Sunday night, I was sitting at our dining room table, half watching the football game between the Manning brothers and wholly reading James Dickey’s Deliverance. It was about ten o’clock, and the moon was out, and there was enough light from the kitchen window to cast a shadow on something odd on the floor.
An essay I wrote for The Nervous Breakdown.
Book reading and wine reception — that’s a pretty good combination. If you happen to be in the NYC area tomorrow night, please come by Korean Cultural Services at 460 Park Ave.(57th Street), 6th Floor. In addition to yours truly, Alex Chee and Taehun Kim will also be there to read from their works. It all starts at 7pm.
[link]
[map]
The Brooklyn Bookfest has come and gone, and what a fun-filled couple of days it was. I took part in the Bookend event on Friday night at powerHouse Arena, then returned on Sunday to take in the literary scenery. Some of the folks I got to hear: Brooke Berman, Daphne Beal, Matt Stewart, Aryn Kyle, Dennis Lehane, Steven Millhauser, Peter Straub, Stewart O’Nan, Sigrid Nunez, Benjamin Percy. That might be about 1% of the authors who were at the event, so I’ll have to do better next time. In any case, here are some pictures in case you weren’t able to make it.
