Tickets available on https://tinyurl.com/y34hp8b4
The Italian Cultural Institute in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong International Literary Festival present “Jhumpa Lahiri: I Belong to Italian”.
Live event at Miller Theatre – Asia Society Hong Kong Center (price per ticket: 100 HKD) / This event is also available online (price per ticket: 50 HKD)
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“Italian is a great love of mine, part of my identity.”
After winning a Pulitzer prize and numerous accolades for her English fiction, Jhumpa Lahiri moved to Rome and dedicated herself to reading and writing in Italian, and she has recently edited the The Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories. Today she joins us to discuss the fluidity of identity, how and why she fell in love with Italian language and culture, and her transition to writing in that language, a process she chronicled in her book, In altre parole (In Other Words).
She talks with Chinese/Irish author Yan Ge, who published ten works of fiction in Chinese before transitioning to writing in English.
In ENGLISH, and available online 24 hours later with CHINESE subtitles.
ABOUT JHUMPA LAHIRI:
Jhumpa Lahiri moved to Rhode Island as a child with her Bengali parents. Lahiri’s ability to convey cultural and identity conflicts in her work roots back to the dual expectations from America and her parents. Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake expands on the perplexities of the immigrant experience. Lahiri’s most recent book of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, received the 2008 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and was awarded the National Humanities Medal by the NEH at the White House in 2015. In 2019 she was named the director of Princeton University’s Program in Creative Writing.
ABOUT YAN GE:
Yan Ge is a fiction writer in both Chinese and English. She is the author of thirteen books in Chinese, including six novels. She has received numerous awards and was named by People’s Literature Magazineas one of the 20 future literary masters in China. Yan started to write in English in 2016. Since then, her writing has been published in The New York Times, TLS, Brick, Stinging Fly, and elsewhere. She lives in Norwich with her husband and son.
HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL LITERARY FESTIVAL:
The 20th anniversary edition of Hong Kong International Literary Festival (HKILF) will go ahead this year as a hybrid festival of live and online events.
From 5th–15th November HKILF will present more than 70 events featuring writers and speakers from around the world. The flexible format means people can join no matter what the COVID-19 situation is in November.
HKILF is planning live events with local authors where it will be possible for audiences to enjoy the live festival atmosphere, HKILF is also offering a fantastic virtual line-up that people can watch at home with their family, friends or book club.
HKILF 20th edition theme ‘Present Tense/Future Perfect’ explores in fiction and non – fiction how the world is responding to issues such as health, inequality and climate change, as well as possible future directions for humanity and the planet.
Visit https://www.festival.org.hk/2020-events/ for more details.