Jenny Zhang Reading

The Edelstein-Keller Visiting Writer Series presents poet, fiction writer, and essayist Jenny Zhang. With writing that often focuses on the Chinese American immigrant experience, she is known for her frank humor, emotional directness, and subversive thoughts about race, femininity, and love in contemporary America.

This in-person event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations necessary. For questions about accessibility services and the venue, please email sutt0063@umn.edu or call 612-626-1528.

Zhang’s debut story collection, Sour Heart (2018), conjures the experience of adolescence through the eyes of Chinese American girls growing up in New York City and is the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the PEN/Robert. W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction, the O. Henry Prize, a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, and a Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, as well as a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. In 2012, she published the poetry collection Dear Jenny, We Are All Find. Zhang’s second collection of poetry, My Baby First Birthday, was published in 2020 from Tin House Books. In addition to her fiction and poetry, Zhang’s essays have been published by the New York Times, Harper’s, Harper’s Bazaar, and Rookie.

Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English.

Masks encouraged. Staff and visitors attending in-person events are asked to self-screen for COVID-19 symptoms using the Stay Safe MN Health Screening Checklist. Staff and visitors are reminded to wash hands often, get tested, and stay home when ill or exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.