Prize-winning author Min Jin Lee and ‘Pachinko’ set for Millbrook Literary Festival

 

Prize-winning author

Min Jin Lee and ‘Pachinko’

set for Millbrook Literary Festival

 

 

Prize-winning author Min Jin Lee will discuss her newest book “Pachinko” in one of the featured presentations at this year’s Millbrook Literary Festival, set Saturday, May 20 at the Millbrook Library.

“Pachinko” follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in the early 1900s with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor, yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is saved when a young tubercular minister offers to marry and bring her to Japan.

So begins a sweeping saga of an exceptional family in exile from its homeland and caught in the indifferent arc of history. Through desperate struggles and hard-won triumphs, its members are bound together by deep roots as they face enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.

Lee worked as a lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time. She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer. Her fiction has been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts and has appeared most recently in One Story. Her writings about books, travel and food have appeared in The New York TimesConde Nast TravelerThe Times of LondonVogue (US), Travel + Leisure (SEA), Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine.

Over 60 authors and illustrators will be participating throughout the day under the tent at the Millbrook Library on Franklin Avenue.

A preview of Saturday’s events will take place on Wednesday, May 17, beginning at 6:45 p.m. at Merritt Bookstore with a reception featuring writers Dani Shapiro and Elisha Cooper in conversation about their new memoirs, “Hour Glass” and “Falling: A Daughter, a Father and a Journey Back,” respectively.

A preview of Saturday’s events will take place on Wednesday, May 17, beginning at 6:45 p.m. at the Merritt Bookstore with a reception featuring writers Dani Shapiro and Elisha Cooper in conversation about their new memoirs, “Hour Glass” and “Falling: A Daughter, a Father and a Journey Back,” respectively.

Here is the lineup for Saturday, May 20.

  • A conversation with Min Jin Lee, Korean-American author of the best-selling multi-generational saga “Pachinko.”
  • Hudson Valley food writer Elaine Khosrova, discussing her book “Butter,” an exploration around the world of the history of this beloved fat – with free samples!!
  • Author Evan Pritchard, a descendent of the Mi’kmaq people and director of the Center of Algonquin Culture, and poet and Vassar College professor Molly McGlennen reading from a new collection entitled “Tending the Fire,” a celebration of Native American voices in literature today.
  • Ashley Hurlburt-Biagini, Hudson Valley resident and co-author of “In Defiance: Runaways from Slavery in New York’s Hudson River Valley 1735-1831,” discussing the prevalence of slavery here in the North prior to the Civil War.
  • Well-known authors Suzanne LaFleur and Caron Levis in conversation on writing about tough subjects for children and young adults
  • Columnist Karen Kaufman Orloff on writing a personal essay.

Other Festival activities include the annual Scott Meyer Award, this year for an original essay on any subject; the Young Writers’ Showcase of original creative writing by students aged 8-18, picture book readings for young children and poetry readings for both adults and youngsters.

Over 60 authors and illustrators will be participating throughout the day under the tent at the Millbrook Library on Franklin Avenue. For more information, check the website at millbookliteraryfestival.org.

Other Festival activities include the presentation of the annual Scott Meyer Award, this year for an original essay on any subject; the Young Writers’ Showcase of original creative writing by students aged 8-18, picture book readings for young children and poetry readings for both adults and youngsters.

For more information, check the website at millbookliteraryfestival.org.

 

Author: Harlem Valley News