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Jim Barnard

A person looks out a window.

Amy Quan Barry

Amy Quan Barry, the Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at UW-Madison will read from her work that spans two decades at the university as poet, novelist and playwright. Register at warf.org (including for a Zoom option) for this Crossroads of Ideas series event.

media release: Journeys: An evening with writer Quan Barry

Crossroads of Ideas is teaming up with the UW-Madison Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education for a four-part miniseries that features outstanding UW researchers who have received WARF faculty awards.

The first talk in the miniseries highlights Amy Quan Barry, who will read from various works spanning her 20-plus year career at UW-Madison. Join us for an evening not to be missed!

Born in Saigon and raised on Boston’s northshore, Amy Quan Barry is the Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at UW-Madison where, in addition to receiving the Vilas, Romnes, Kellett and WARF research awards, she has also directed both the MFA Program in Creative Writing and the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing.

Barry is the author of seven books of fiction and poetry, including the novel We Ride Upon Sticks, which O: Oprah Magazine describes as, “Spellbinding, wickedly fun.” The New York Times described her previous work, She Weeps Each Time You’re Born, as “deeply affecting.” Her third novel, When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East, follows a group of Buddhist monks as they search for a reincarnation in the vast Mongolian landscape. The NY Times described it as, “Mesmerizing and delicate . . . a dazzling achievement…The unlikeliness of the novel is exactly its magic.”

Barry is one of a select group of writers to receive NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction. In 2021, she was awarded the American Library Association’s Alex Award. She is currently Forward Theater’s first ever Writer-in-Residence. Her first play production, The Mytilenean Debate, premiered in spring 2022.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 7 P.M., Discovery Building and online. Part of a monthly series on thought-provoking public issues. The media partner for Crossroads of Ideas is The Cap Times.