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Author Talk: Kevin Nguyen on “My Documents”
AUTHOR TALK – KEVIN NGUYEN ON “MY DOCUMENTS”: The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is promoting this event in honor of AAPI Heritage Month (Asian American Pacific Heritage Month).
Celebrate AAPI month with author Kevin Nguyen and his new book, “M峄 Documents.” Nguyen will be in conversation with educator and AAPI activist Jennifer Heikkila Diaz.
This event is presented in partnership with AAPI Westport.
As an author, journalist, and editor at The Verge, Kevin Nguyen鈥檚 work often explores what happens at the intersection of technology, humanity, and culture. His incisive and darkly satirical new novel, “M峄 Documents,” couldn鈥檛 be timelier 鈥 or more engrossing.
A moving speculative novel about a Vietnamese American family confronting ambition and assimilation during exceptionally troubled times, “M峄 Documents” gives a version of reality only a few degrees away from our own. Nguyen, whose work grew from extensive research on the incarceration of Japanese citizens in the U.S. during the 1940s, imagines what a mass detention program might look like in the age of the internet.
Kevin Nguyen is features editor of The Verge, and was previously a senior editor at GQ. He has edited stories that have been finalists for the National Magazine Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His debut novel, “New Waves” (2020, One World), was one of NPR鈥檚 Best Books of the Year in 2020, and was widely celebrated for its mordant humor, fierce intelligence, and stylish prose. Author Bryan Washington called it 鈥渁 delight and a gamble and a treasure and a miracle.鈥
Jennifer (JHD/Jenny) Heikkila D铆az (they/she) is a professional learning coordinator for the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies and a facilitator of statewide teacher communities as a member of the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective Steering Committee and as a UConn AAASI Activist in Residence. For nearly 25 years, JHD has worked as a K-12 public school teacher, school administrator, and educator coach in Baltimore, South Central Los Angeles, Long Beach, Echo Park, Queens, and across Connecticut. They are a New Havener and co-chair of the Asian Pacific American Coalition of CT (APAC). Their lifelong commitment is to backing youth, who envision an even more joyful and just world than they do.
At 7 p.m. at the Westport Library, 20 Jesup Road, Westport, CT.
