On September 28th, KSW Presents “All This Wreckage, In Your Own Language,” a reading featuring two debut novelists—Elaine Castillo, author of America Is Not the Heart, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree. The title of this event brings together quotes from both books as their stories begin—when a letter arrives in Fruit of the Drunken Tree, “bringing with it all this wreckage to our doorstep,” and in America Is Not the Heart, when “you can’t remember the last time someone told you to take care of yourself in your own language.”This is a reading that gives language to the stories and wreckages of war and violence, colonialism and dictatorship, immigration and refuge, family, desperation, and the decisions one makes towards a kind of survival.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading. Please see below for more information on how to apply.
WHEN: Friday, September 28 at 7 PM
WHERE: Arc Gallery and Studios, 1246 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103
HOW MUCH: $8 Pre-sale, $20 Support Level (reserved seats) available.
*There is limited seating at the venue, you may purchase supporter level tickets to reserve seats. If you have a disability and/or need to be seated during the event, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll work to accommodate you.
FEATURES
Elaine Castillo was born and raised in the Bay Area. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Comparative Literature. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation Fellow, and her writing can be found or is forthcoming from Freeman’s, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, Taste Magazine, Bon Appetit, Electric Literature and elsewhere. Her most recent short film, A MUKBANG, was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Open Space. Her debut novel AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART was published by Viking Books in the US/Canada and Atlantic Books (UK), and is forthcoming in translation in multiple countries. Her Instagram can be found at @_elainecastillo.
ABOUT AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART
How many lives fit in a lifetime? When Hero De Vera arrives in America – haunted by the political upheaval in the Philippines and disowned by her parents – she’s already on her third. Her uncle gives her a fresh start in the Bay Area, and he doesn’t ask about her past. His younger wife knows enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. But their daughter – the first American-born daughter in the family – can’t resist asking Hero about her damaged hands. An increasingly relevant story told with startling lucidity, humour, and an uncanny ear for the intimacies and shorthand of family ritual, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakeable grip of history. With exuberance, grit, and sly tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave one home to grasp at another.
Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Doubleday, 2018), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. She was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Nylon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Guernica, and Huffington Post, among others. She received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. She currently teaches writing to immigrant high school students as part of a San Francisco Arts Commission initiative bringing artists into public schools. She is the book columnist for KQED.
ABOUT FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE
In Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent reign, seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá. But when their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula and Petrona find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal. Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricably linked coming-of-age stories. Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading.
Eligibility: We welcome writers of all genres, and strive to spotlight those of the Asian Pacific diaspora and people of color. We are especially interested in showcasing emerging writers who have had little stage time or few publications.
At this time, KSW Presents cannot provide payment for writers who submit to be a part of this reading series, but we are actively pursuing funding for this program.How to Apply: Submit work that explores this upcoming event's theme, that can be read or performed within 3 minutes or less. Apply here. (https://kearnystreet.submittable.com/submit/123905/ksw-presents-all-this-wreckage-in-your-own-language-call-for-submissions)
ABOUT KEARNY STREET WORKSHOP
Founded in 1972, during the height of the Asian American cultural movement, Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country. We offer classes and workshops, salons, and student presentations, as well as professionally curated and produced exhibitions, performances, readings, and screenings. KSW makes artists out of community members and community members out of artists. For the past 45 years, KSW has nurtured the creative spirit, offered an important platform for new voices to be heard, and connected artists with community. [MORE]
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading. Please see below for more information on how to apply.
WHEN: Friday, September 28 at 7 PM
WHERE: Arc Gallery and Studios, 1246 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103
HOW MUCH: $8 Pre-sale, $20 Support Level (reserved seats) available.
*There is limited seating at the venue, you may purchase supporter level tickets to reserve seats. If you have a disability and/or need to be seated during the event, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll work to accommodate you.
FEATURES
Elaine Castillo was born and raised in the Bay Area. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Comparative Literature. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation Fellow, and her writing can be found or is forthcoming from Freeman’s, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, Taste Magazine, Bon Appetit, Electric Literature and elsewhere. Her most recent short film, A MUKBANG, was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Open Space. Her debut novel AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART was published by Viking Books in the US/Canada and Atlantic Books (UK), and is forthcoming in translation in multiple countries. Her Instagram can be found at @_elainecastillo.
ABOUT AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART
How many lives fit in a lifetime? When Hero De Vera arrives in America – haunted by the political upheaval in the Philippines and disowned by her parents – she’s already on her third. Her uncle gives her a fresh start in the Bay Area, and he doesn’t ask about her past. His younger wife knows enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. But their daughter – the first American-born daughter in the family – can’t resist asking Hero about her damaged hands. An increasingly relevant story told with startling lucidity, humour, and an uncanny ear for the intimacies and shorthand of family ritual, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakeable grip of history. With exuberance, grit, and sly tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave one home to grasp at another.
Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Doubleday, 2018), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. She was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Nylon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Guernica, and Huffington Post, among others. She received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. She currently teaches writing to immigrant high school students as part of a San Francisco Arts Commission initiative bringing artists into public schools. She is the book columnist for KQED.
ABOUT FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE
In Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent reign, seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá. But when their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula and Petrona find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal. Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricably linked coming-of-age stories. Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading.
Eligibility: We welcome writers of all genres, and strive to spotlight those of the Asian Pacific diaspora and people of color. We are especially interested in showcasing emerging writers who have had little stage time or few publications.
At this time, KSW Presents cannot provide payment for writers who submit to be a part of this reading series, but we are actively pursuing funding for this program.How to Apply: Submit work that explores this upcoming event's theme, that can be read or performed within 3 minutes or less. Apply here. (https://kearnystreet.submittable.com/submit/123905/ksw-presents-all-this-wreckage-in-your-own-language-call-for-submissions)
ABOUT KEARNY STREET WORKSHOP
Founded in 1972, during the height of the Asian American cultural movement, Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country. We offer classes and workshops, salons, and student presentations, as well as professionally curated and produced exhibitions, performances, readings, and screenings. KSW makes artists out of community members and community members out of artists. For the past 45 years, KSW has nurtured the creative spirit, offered an important platform for new voices to be heard, and connected artists with community. [MORE]
On September 28th, KSW Presents “All This Wreckage, In Your Own Language,” a reading featuring two debut novelists—Elaine Castillo, author of America Is Not the Heart, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree. The title of this event brings together quotes from both books as their stories begin—when a letter arrives in Fruit of the Drunken Tree, “bringing with it all this wreckage to our doorstep,” and in America Is Not the Heart, when “you can’t remember the last time someone told you to take care of yourself in your own language.”This is a reading that gives language to the stories and wreckages of war and violence, colonialism and dictatorship, immigration and refuge, family, desperation, and the decisions one makes towards a kind of survival.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading. Please see below for more information on how to apply.
WHEN: Friday, September 28 at 7 PM
WHERE: Arc Gallery and Studios, 1246 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103
HOW MUCH: $8 Pre-sale, $20 Support Level (reserved seats) available.
*There is limited seating at the venue, you may purchase supporter level tickets to reserve seats. If you have a disability and/or need to be seated during the event, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll work to accommodate you.
FEATURES
Elaine Castillo was born and raised in the Bay Area. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Comparative Literature. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation Fellow, and her writing can be found or is forthcoming from Freeman’s, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, Taste Magazine, Bon Appetit, Electric Literature and elsewhere. Her most recent short film, A MUKBANG, was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Open Space. Her debut novel AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART was published by Viking Books in the US/Canada and Atlantic Books (UK), and is forthcoming in translation in multiple countries. Her Instagram can be found at @_elainecastillo.
ABOUT AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART
How many lives fit in a lifetime? When Hero De Vera arrives in America – haunted by the political upheaval in the Philippines and disowned by her parents – she’s already on her third. Her uncle gives her a fresh start in the Bay Area, and he doesn’t ask about her past. His younger wife knows enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. But their daughter – the first American-born daughter in the family – can’t resist asking Hero about her damaged hands. An increasingly relevant story told with startling lucidity, humour, and an uncanny ear for the intimacies and shorthand of family ritual, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakeable grip of history. With exuberance, grit, and sly tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave one home to grasp at another.
Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Doubleday, 2018), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. She was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Nylon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Guernica, and Huffington Post, among others. She received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. She currently teaches writing to immigrant high school students as part of a San Francisco Arts Commission initiative bringing artists into public schools. She is the book columnist for KQED.
ABOUT FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE
In Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent reign, seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá. But when their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula and Petrona find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal. Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricably linked coming-of-age stories. Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading.
Eligibility: We welcome writers of all genres, and strive to spotlight those of the Asian Pacific diaspora and people of color. We are especially interested in showcasing emerging writers who have had little stage time or few publications.
At this time, KSW Presents cannot provide payment for writers who submit to be a part of this reading series, but we are actively pursuing funding for this program.How to Apply: Submit work that explores this upcoming event's theme, that can be read or performed within 3 minutes or less. Apply here. (https://kearnystreet.submittable.com/submit/123905/ksw-presents-all-this-wreckage-in-your-own-language-call-for-submissions)
ABOUT KEARNY STREET WORKSHOP
Founded in 1972, during the height of the Asian American cultural movement, Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country. We offer classes and workshops, salons, and student presentations, as well as professionally curated and produced exhibitions, performances, readings, and screenings. KSW makes artists out of community members and community members out of artists. For the past 45 years, KSW has nurtured the creative spirit, offered an important platform for new voices to be heard, and connected artists with community. [MORE]
read more
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading. Please see below for more information on how to apply.
WHEN: Friday, September 28 at 7 PM
WHERE: Arc Gallery and Studios, 1246 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103
HOW MUCH: $8 Pre-sale, $20 Support Level (reserved seats) available.
*There is limited seating at the venue, you may purchase supporter level tickets to reserve seats. If you have a disability and/or need to be seated during the event, please contact us at [email protected] and we'll work to accommodate you.
FEATURES
Elaine Castillo was born and raised in the Bay Area. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Comparative Literature. She is a Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation Fellow, and her writing can be found or is forthcoming from Freeman’s, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, Taste Magazine, Bon Appetit, Electric Literature and elsewhere. Her most recent short film, A MUKBANG, was commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Open Space. Her debut novel AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART was published by Viking Books in the US/Canada and Atlantic Books (UK), and is forthcoming in translation in multiple countries. Her Instagram can be found at @_elainecastillo.
ABOUT AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART
How many lives fit in a lifetime? When Hero De Vera arrives in America – haunted by the political upheaval in the Philippines and disowned by her parents – she’s already on her third. Her uncle gives her a fresh start in the Bay Area, and he doesn’t ask about her past. His younger wife knows enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. But their daughter – the first American-born daughter in the family – can’t resist asking Hero about her damaged hands. An increasingly relevant story told with startling lucidity, humour, and an uncanny ear for the intimacies and shorthand of family ritual, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful debut about three generations of women in one family struggling to balance the promise of the American dream and the unshakeable grip of history. With exuberance, grit, and sly tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave one home to grasp at another.
Ingrid Rojas Contreras is the author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Doubleday, 2018), a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. She was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the Nylon, Los Angeles Review of Books, Electric Literature, Guernica, and Huffington Post, among others. She received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and the San Francisco Writer's Grotto. She currently teaches writing to immigrant high school students as part of a San Francisco Arts Commission initiative bringing artists into public schools. She is the book columnist for KQED.
ABOUT FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE
In Colombia at the height Pablo Escobar's violent reign, seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá. But when their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula and Petrona find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal. Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricably linked coming-of-age stories. Fruit of the Drunken Tree is a powerful testament to the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
We are opening up submissions for writers to be a part of this reading.
Eligibility: We welcome writers of all genres, and strive to spotlight those of the Asian Pacific diaspora and people of color. We are especially interested in showcasing emerging writers who have had little stage time or few publications.
At this time, KSW Presents cannot provide payment for writers who submit to be a part of this reading series, but we are actively pursuing funding for this program.How to Apply: Submit work that explores this upcoming event's theme, that can be read or performed within 3 minutes or less. Apply here. (https://kearnystreet.submittable.com/submit/123905/ksw-presents-all-this-wreckage-in-your-own-language-call-for-submissions)
ABOUT KEARNY STREET WORKSHOP
Founded in 1972, during the height of the Asian American cultural movement, Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) is the oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization in the country. We offer classes and workshops, salons, and student presentations, as well as professionally curated and produced exhibitions, performances, readings, and screenings. KSW makes artists out of community members and community members out of artists. For the past 45 years, KSW has nurtured the creative spirit, offered an important platform for new voices to be heard, and connected artists with community. [MORE]
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Date/Times:
1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
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