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Expanding the Fictional Terrain: Four Writers, Four Collections, Four Awards (AWP - Philadelphia)

Number: F208
Date/Time: 1:45pm - 3:00pm ET on Friday March 25, 2022
Location: 125, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level

From social realism to speculative fiction, from American tales to immigrant lit, from heterosexual narratives to LGBTQ stories—Caroline Kim (the 2020 Drue Heinz Literature Prize), Michael X. Wang (the 2021 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize), Rachel Swearingen (the 2018 New American Fiction Prize), and Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry (the 2020 Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction) will read from their award-winning collections on themes of love, loss, and cultural identity.


Showcasing the rich diversity of the short story landscape, four writers of different ages, races, genders, and cultural heritage (Asian, American, and Russian-Armenian) will read from their work and discuss how their diverse backgrounds and life experiences have shaped and sharpened their artistic vision. Winners of prestigious national story-collection prizes, the authors will highlight the differences and similarities in their work, as well as comment on their publication journeys.