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Taipei Cultural Center and PEN America co-present MEDITATIONS ON WAR and LITERARY QUEST: WESTBETH EDITION, with Taiwanese writer WU MING-YI

  • Date:2019-05-01

Taipei Culture Center in New York and PEN America proudly invite the renowned Taiwanese writer WU MING-YI (吳明益)to talk about his novel The Stolen Bicycle(單車失竊記), as part of 2019 PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL, from May 6 – May 12.

Co-organized with Albertine Books and presented with The Guardian, the MEDITATIONS ON WAR- A talk on three different writers’ novels shows how we endure the memories of war, how we reclaim what is left after war and how we rebuild ourselves in the wake of ignominious battlefield defeats. Wu Ming-Yi (The Stolen Bicycle, which was long-listed for the Man Booker International Prize 2018) , Sinan Antoon (The Book of Collateral Damage), and Laurent Gaudé (Hear Our Defeats) have all written fiction that explores the wreckage brought by wars of all kinds, in all countries, in stories that echo with urgent philosophical questions. Join them for a riveting discussion and experience how literature illuminates humanity’s ongoing struggle. .

Wu Ming-Yi, an author, artist, designer, photographer, literary professor, and environmental activist, is regarded as one of Taiwan’s most important contemporary writers. Since so much of the history recounted in The Stolen Bicycle is entangled with internecine violence and bloodshed across Southeast Asia, the true subject of Wu’s The Stolen Bicycle is war. Throughout the novel, there is hardly a character unaffected in some way by the horrors of war and thus forms a Taiwanese image of rich in conflict, reconciliation and determined pursuit of peace. Taiwan, an ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse society, enriches itself with many precious memories, tolerated but cherished by those survive now.

To extend the meditation, LITERARY QUEST: WESTBETH EDITION leads us to meet the fellow writers and readers at the Westbeth Gallery. Residents of New York City’s historic Westbeth Center for the Arts open their homes to Festival-goers for this perennial favorite festival event. The intimate, salon-style readings and discussions by Festival authors, including Felicity Castagna, Inês Pedrosa, Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Pajtim Statovci, Najat El Hachmi, Wu Ming-Yi, and others will definitely provide you the uniquely immersive literary experience.

MEDITATIONS ON WAR
Date: 07 May 2019
Time: 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Venue: Albertine Book
Address: 972 5th Ave. New York, NY 10075
Tickets: Free

LITERARY QUEST: WESTBETH EDITION
Date: 09 May 2019
Time: 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Venue: Westbeth Artists Housing and Center for the Arts
Address: 55 Bethune St. New York, NY 10014
Tickets: $20