Virtual Events:
Erotically charged and intellectual, entertaining, always surprising, this virtuoso novel seduces with its layers, its characters, and its wide-ranging reflections on art, poetry, history, politics, and desire. The story circles around Elena, orphaned as a child in (the fictional country of) Pacifica and sent to live in the United States, where, as a young woman, she repeatedly seeks out a stranger for domination/submission encounters. What secrets about her country and herself is she trying to uncover, and how are they linked to Ernst, her nonbinary lover? How does her story — and that of her father, her mother, her daughter and grandsons — reflect and change the history of her homeland? The novel is structured like indigenous myth, where past, present and future do not exist, and where everything is present at once and connected to each other: fairy tales, the struggle against a dictator, poetics, colonialism, motherhood, gender identity, sexual passion, romantic love, and even a recipe for adobo. Eileen R. Tabios uses her pen like Elena uses her whip, provoking tenderness through intense sensation as well as illumination through sensuality and a passionate, hungry mind.
We’ll be joined by Marina Budhos, who will share reflections on working with Meena Alexander; Curtis Chin and Barbara Tran, who will speak to the founding of the Workshop, and the very first issues of the Asian Pacific American Journal; Monique Truong, Rajini Srikanth, Sunaina Maira, and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, who will discuss the anthologies published by the Workshop, and their experience bringing those anthologies to life; Lisa Ko, Tina Chang, and Andrea Louie, who will discuss the transitional period between print publications, our newsletter, and magazine; Eileen Tabios, who will discuss the Workshop’s support of Asian American poetics; and writer and former Open City Fellow Tammy Kim, who will discuss the connection between the Workshop’s fellowships and our digital magazine The Margins.
The title of this event is drawn from the inaugural issue of The Asian Pacific American Journal, which was titled “In the Heart,” drawing inspiration from America Is In the Heart, by Carlos Bulosan.
In commemoration of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s 30th anniversary, AAWW at 30 will explore the values and ideas that lie at the heart of the Workshop’s mission. From the complexities of representation to the need for an artistic home to interrogating our editorial and archival legacies, this series of events will serve not only as a retrospective of our rich and layered history, but also as a resounding call to envision our future.
Directed by Francis Tanglao Aguas
Sponsored by Ma-Yi Studios & Aguas Arts Ink.
