Tuesday, November 4, 2008

2009 UW-Fox Valley Ethnic Reading Seminar

This seminar is a unique opportunity to discuss experiences and thoughts on issues of ethnicity, identity, citizenship and society, by coming together in a shared reading experience.

This year's seminar will focus on "Lan Samantha Chang and the Immigrant Experience." Her stories set in the past and the present, in China and the US, depict intimate portrayals of individuals who long for so much, but above all, for connection, in an environment that is at once alienating and enticing. Hunger includes a novella and five short stories that explore the vulnerabilities of individuals and their relationships as they navigate the dislocations brought by immigration. Her novel Inheritance illustrates the complexity of the interaction between identity and heritage, memory and history.

"Sometimes I wonder if I would have become a writer if I had been raised in a larger, more diverse community ... My childhood in Appleton [WI] prepared me for writing -- for observing and recording -- because I grew up feeling like an outsider ... I can not remember a time when I was not conscious of being different from the majority of people around me."

Lan Samantha Chang has published short stories in Atlantic Monthly and Best American Short Stories Collection. She has been awarded numerous fellowships awards, including the PEN Beyond Margins Award in 2005 for Inheritance and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. She currently directs the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. She will be speaking at UW-Fox Valley April 17th.

The seminar is open to at no charge to members of the Fox Valley community. Sessions will take place from noon until 1:00 p.m. at the UW-Fox Valley campus on February 17, February 24, March 10, April 14 and April 21. The sessions will be in a discussion format.

There is no cost to participate. Participants may keep the books as part of their involvement in the seminar.

If you are interested in participating please contact: Jeff Kuepper: jeff.kuepper@uwc.edu . If possible, please try to respond by Thursday, November 6th.

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