Registration encouraged but not requir ed.
\nReading T ogether \;is joint effort between local libraries and organization s to build stronger community connections through the experience of readin g a shared title and facilitating events and experiences that explore the themes of the book on a local level.
\nJoin us for a discussion abou t this year's title selection\, Yellowface \;by R. F. Kuang as we prepar e for her author visit to Kalamazoo on March 23rd. \; Refreshments wil l be served.
\nAuthors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin ris ing stars: same year at Yale\, same debut year in publishing. But Athena&r squo\;s a cross-genre literary darling\, and June didn&rsquo\;t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls\, June th inks.
\nSo when June witnesses Athena&rsquo\;s death in a freak acci dent\, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena&rsquo\;s just-finished maste rpiece\, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese l aborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.
\nSo what if June edits Athena&rsquo\;s novel and sends it to her agent as h er own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song&ndash\;complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn&rsquo\ ;t this piece of history deserve to be told\, whoever the teller is? That& rsquo\;s what June claims\, and the \;New York Times \;bestseller list seems to agree.
\nBut June can&rsquo\;t get away from Athena&rs quo\;s shadow\, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June&rsquo\;s (st olen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret\, she d iscovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
\nWith its totally immersive first-person voice\, \;Yellowface& nbsp\;takes on questions of diversity\, racism\, and cultural appropriatio n not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian- American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang&rsquo\;s novel is timely\, razor-sharp\, and eminently readable.
\nRebecca F. Kuang i s the award-winning\, #1 \;New York Times \;and #1 \;Sunday Ti mes \;bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy\, \;Babel: An Arcane History\, and \;Yellowface. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chines e Studies from Oxford\; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.
\nAll participants are welcome. If you anticipate need ing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided\, please contact Sara at sweyenberg@portagelibrary.info \;or (269) 585-8710 in adva nce of your visit.
\nLong &\; Gourdneck Lake Rooms\, located on the lower level of the library. \;
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