ORANGE — Writer Karen Tei Yamashita will speak as part of Chapman University’s John Fowles Literary Forum on Monday, April 15, at 7 p.m. in the Henley Reading Room, Leatherby Libraries, 1 University Drive on campus.
Yamashita’s works, several of which contain elements of magic realism, include the novels “I Hotel” (2010), “Circle K Cycles” (2001), “Tropic of Orange” (1997), “Brazil-Maru” (1992), and “Through the Arc of the Rain Forest” (1990). Her novels emphasize the necessity of polyglot, multicultural communities in an increasingly globalized age, even as they destabilize orthodox notions of borders and national/ethnic identity.
A finalist for the 2010 National Book Award, Yamashita is an associate professor of literature at UC Santa Cruz, where she teaches creative writing and Asian American literature. She graduated from Carleton College with degrees in English and Japanese literature, lived for nine years in Brazil, and later researched the Japanese Brazilian community in Japan.
The John Fowles Center for Creative Writing serves to promote and advance the discipline of creative writing in all its aspects: fiction, poetry, drama, creative non-fiction and film. It offers students and non-students alike an opportunity to gain a greater appreciation for the “written word” and those who write it.
Each year a distinguished group of national and international writers is invited to Chapman University. The center makes these writers available not only to the Chapman community, but also to Orange County and, by extension, the Southern California community as well.
Now into its second decade, the center has invited such national and international writers as Salman Rushdie, Luisa Valenzuela, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gioconda Belli, Alicia Partnoy, Raymond Federman, Steve Katz, Ronald Sukenick, Raúl Zurita, Elizabeth George, Ralph Berry, David Matlin, Charles Bernstein, Larry McCaffery, Alicia Kozameh, Fanny Howe, David Antin, and Willis Barnstone.
This year’s series featured Maxine Hong Kingston (“The Woman Warrior”), Miguel Syjuco (“Illustrado”), Zulfikar A. Ghose (“The Incredible Brazilian” trilogy), and Andrew Lam (“East Eats West”).
The event is free and open to the public. For campus map and directions, click here.