Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang is set to take part in the Asian American Literary Festival, which will be held November 13th and 14th. The even is presented by the Asian American Writers' Workshop. The festival will be honoring literary figure Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, as the recipient of the 2009 The Asian American Writers' Workshop's Lifetime Achievement Award. As part of the two day festivities, Hwang will participate on a panel, "Beyond Harold and Kumar: Representation in a Not-Yet-Post-Racial Era" at at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, at the PowerHouse Arena (37 Main Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn).
David Henry Hwang's plays include M. Butterfly (1988 Tony Award, 1989 Pulitzer Finalist), Yellow Face (2008 OBIE Award, 2008 Pulitzer Finalist), Golden Child (1997 OBIE Award, 1998 Tony Nomination), FOB (1981 OBIE Award) and The Dance and the Railroad. He wrote libretti for the Broadway musicals Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival, Tony Nomination) and Disney's Tarzan. His opera libretti include Philip Glass's The Voyage (Metropolitan Opera), Bright Sheng's The Silver River, Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards), and Howard Shore's The Fly. Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-writer), and also co-wrote the song "Solo" with Prince. He serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, and was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
The Festival will begins on November 13th with a gala evening celebrating Sonny Mehta with special guest Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient.
Additional features of the Reading Events portion of the festival include presentations by writers narrating a film clip of one of their creative works; an exploration of Japanese American and post-9/11 South Asian internment with writers; a special reading with Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, who reads from her new short story collection Unaccustomed Earth; and guests Jen Kwok (comic); one of the country's most respected historians, Columbia University Professor Mae Ngai; Believer magazine editor Ed Park; Crossword Book finalist Amitava Kumar; and more. Tickets for each reading are $5 can be purchased here.
For nearly two decades, The Asian American Writers' Workshop has been a force for exceptional literature. We nurture anyone who has a story to tell, whether they're Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri, whose first book party we hosted, or a struggling young writer just graduating from high school. Just last year, the United Asian American Organizations named us one of the top five Asian American groups in the country.
For more information, visit pageturnerfest.org.
