LiterASIAN Festival 2019: Celebrating Asian Canadian Writing

As part of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop (ACWW) and Ricepaper Magazine, LiterASIAN: A Festival of Pacific Rim Asian Canadian Writing will take place on Friday September 27, 2019 and Saturday, September 28, 2019. LiterASIAN is a spotlight on Asian Canadian literature, history, and culture. This year’s festival theme - Genesis: Writing Art Into Life - invites everyone to think about the various origins of creative and cultural inspiration.

“For the past three decades ACWW has helped writers get published, this is the only festival in Canada that highlights how the Pan-Asian literary voice has added to Canadian literary culture, ” says Allan Cho, festival director. “This is more than just a literary event, this is a celebration that brings together Asian Canadian authors from a range of genres like fiction, autobiography, theatre, and poetry to enjoy and share their ideas and stories that challenges our perception and realities of writing and publishing.”

LiterASIAN: A Festival of Pacific Rim Asian Canadian Writing will take place in historic Vancouver Chinatown’s Sun Wah Centre and Chinatown House. The festival will include an opening reception at Chinatown House. Writing workshops and book talks will be held at the Sun Wah Centre.

Featured authors at the festival will be award-winning writers Rita Wong, Fred Wah, C.E. Gatchalian, May Q. Wong, Philip Huynh, and Sally Ito.

LiterASIAN’s Opening Reception at Chinatown House will feature the presentation of the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. The newly renamed Emerging Writers Award originated in 1999 to help authors of Pacific Rim Asian heritage be published with an established publishing house.

Festival passes to LiterASIAN are $25 each, and a portion of the proceeds will go towards the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. One pass will include entry to all launches, readings, workshops, and other events. Individual workshop tickets are also available at $10 each.

Program schedule and tickets are available online at http://literasian.com

For interviews and photos, please contact info@literasian.com

With much gratitude, we acknowledge that our festival will take place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples

In Memory: Wayson Choy event at Vancouver Public Library, July 27, 2019

---

Join us for a special tribute event to celebrate and remember Vancouver-born author Wayson Choy (1939-2019). Features readings from local writers who have been inspired by Choy's legacy and his many remarkable contributions to the literary community.  In partnership with the UBC Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies program and Vancouver Public Library. 

This free event takes place in the Alice MacKay Room on the Lower Level of the Central Library on Saturday, July 27, 2.00-4.00pm. 

The Things We Carry: Storytelling at Joy Kogawa House - June 15, 2019

This is the third set of "The Things We Carry’’ storytelling circles that features three published authors: Joy Kogawa (from Ontario), Victoria Kuttainen (from Australia) and May Q. Wong (from Victoria).

Each author will share her family migration story and reflections on migration. The size of the circles is designed to enable participants to interact with the featured storytellers in an intimate environment in the historic Joy Kogawa House, where acclaimed writer Joy Kogawa grew up. After the presentation by each author/storyteller, there will be time for questions and sharing among members of the circle.

Circle A (1:30pm-2:30pm): Joy Kogawa

Refreshment break (2:30pm -3pm): mix & mingle with authors; book-signing

Circle B1 (3:00pm-3:45pm): Victoria Kuttainen

Circle B2 (3:00pm-3:35pm): May Q. Wong

Circle C1 (3:50pm-4:35pm): Victoria Kuttainen

Circle C2 (3:50pm-4:35pm): May Q. Wong

Brought to you in partnership with Historic Joy Kogawa House, Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, UBC Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies

Wayson Choy (1939-2019)

Our dear advisor and mentor Wayson Choy passed away today. This literary giant will be missed. Our world has been better because of him. We honoured Wayson in 2012 with a special tribute dinner.

Write On Vancouver: Writing and Publishing Fair with Cynda Yeasting and Vincent Ternida on May 11, 2019

---

As part of Write On Vancouver, be sure to visit us at the writing and publishing fair in the promenade to chat with local publishers and writing groups.  Come find us at the Ricepaper booth with authors Cynda Yeasting and Vincent Ternida on May 11, 11.00am to 4.00pm.

New Book by Anna Wang - Inconvenient Memories A Personal Account of the Tiananmen Square Incident and the China Before and After

Immigrant and survivor Anna Wang offers a unique glimpse into the Tiananmen Square Incident and the China surrounding it in her powerful new book Inconvenient Memories: A Personal Account of the Tiananmen Square Incident and the China Before and After.  From her childhood account of living in an oppressed government system, to the activities during her college-age years that led to the protests in the Square and beyond, Wang’s revealing personal account is both gripping and terrifying. It’s a story that will never be allowed to be told in her home country.

“When the protests started, I was sent to the square on a daily basis to take photos for my Japanese boss to analyze for evidence of turning tides in the economy,” says Wang, who worked for Canon. “That’s why after almost thirty years I can still recall the details graphically.”  

Having experienced students’ protests while studying at Peking University, Wang naturally felt for the cause of the students. However, as an employee of a foreign enterprise, she observed the protests with mixed feelings.

“I felt sympathy for the students’ fight for democracy and freedom, but when I crossed the Tiananmen Square, hearing them sing “The Internationale will be the human race,” I became wary of them. What if the students succeeded and they took everything I owned and would own in the future? As the very few who worked for foreign enterprises at the time, I cared about the market economy, private property, and anything like that.”

Then the massacre occurred and Wang lived through the terrifying time when tanks were in the streets and people were dying. Every relationship around her was challenged.