 |
| Yi Shun Lai |
#Write2TheEnd is honored to welcome writer and editor Yi Shun Lai to southwest Michigan.
Lai is the non-fiction editor of the highly regarded Tahoma Literary Review. She was, for a time, the youngest-ever writer for the legendary J. Peterman catalog. And that was before "Seinfeld" discovered it. Her most recent work is NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK: THE MISADVENTURES OF MARTY WU (2016, Shade Mountain Press), a humorous epistolary novel.
At the Book Swap, Lai will conduct a workshop on keeping an active journal and will discuss her writing process. She will have a limited number of copies of NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK on hand, available for signing and purchase. Light refreshments will be served.
“We have all been tempted by the Self-Help section of the local bookstore,” says Lai.
“And we've probably also all acquired some gems and some duds. Did you get something out of your book and want to pass it on now? Or was it just not for you? Bring it to the Book Swap!"
She will be a Special Guest at the Webster Memorial Library’s Writing Workshop with Ami Hendrickson the evening of July 13 from 6 to 7:30.
Lai will also appear at Women and Children First in Chicago, IL, on Friday, July 15.
NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK details the life of Marty Wu, a compulsive reader of advice manuals who would love to come across as a poised young advertising professional. Instead, she trips over her own feet and blurts out inappropriate comments. The bulk of her brain matter, she decides, consists of gerbils "spinning madly in alternating directions.”
Marty hopes to someday open a boutique costume shop, but it's hard to keep focused on her dream. First comes a spectacular career meltdown that sends her ricocheting between the stress of New York and the warmth of supportive relatives in Taiwan. Then she faces one domestic drama after another, with a formidable mother who's impossible to please, an annoyingly successful and well- adjusted brother, and surprising family secrets that pop up precisely when she doesn't want to deal with them.
Mining the comedic potential of the 1.5-generation American experience, NOT A SELF-HELP BOOK is an insightful and witty portrait of a young woman scrambling to balance familial expectations and her own creative dreams. Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, author of A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family raves: "A breezy and charming tale ... Anyone who's grown up immersed in a profoundly rich old-world culture and feels its constant pull will commiserate—and be entertained."
All of Lai’s southwest Michigan appearances are free and open to the public.
#Write2TheEnd is an eight-week intensive writing workshop in St. Joseph facilitated by Ami Hendrickson and Kim Jorgensen Gane. #Write2TheEnd participants have succeeded in finishing novels, poetry chapbooks, non-fiction books, and more. #Write2TheEnd also conducts occasional short workshops. In addition to Lai, noteworthy authors #Write2TheEnd has hosted include Patty Chang Anker (Some Nerve: Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave. Riverhead; Penguin) and Ava Chin (Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal. Simon & Schuster).
