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BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:1b6753ab-5228-490e-b6b8-88843c9c856f@findlocal.community
DTSTAMP:20261015T123140Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261018T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261018T160000
SUMMARY:Truong Tran Launch Party for “How to Exi(s)t: A Poet’s Memoir”
DESCRIPTION:Litquake presents Truong Tran in conversation with Garrett Ca
 ples City Lights Publishers celebrate the publication of How to Exi(s)t:
  A Poet’s Memoir By Truong Tran Published by City Lights A neurodivergen
 t gay war refugee navigates academia\, racism\, and indeed life itself a
 s a poet\, artist\, and teacher How to Exi(s)t: A Poet’s Memoir is an ex
 periment in nonlinear autobiography by the author of the American Book A
 ward-winning Book of the Other\, Truong Tran. Beginning in the present–a
 t a writing residency in the aftermath of this success–How to Exi(s)t mo
 ves back and forth in time\, in bursts of brief poetic essays grouped by
  theme. The duality of the title thematizes a dilemma at the heart of th
 e book: how does a poet separate himself from the academic career to whi
 ch he’s devoted his professional life and what does being a teacher mean
  outside of it? Unpeeling the layers between present and past\, Tran pro
 ceeds in reverse as he explores crucial events and figures in his life\,
  including the reaction to the publication of Book of the Other\, the dy
 namics of whiteness and power framing his repeated rejection for a tenur
 e track position\, the profound effect of his dyslexia on his evolution 
 as a writer and artist\, the repercussions of being outed by a newspaper
  after winning an undergrad poetry prize\, traumatic episodes growing up
  in the Vietnamese diaspora in San Jose\, and complicated relationships 
 with both his family and his chosen family. Attempting to fathom these e
 xperiences and connect them to his present self\, Tran examines and reex
 amines key details rather than dispensing with them in neat anecdotes\, 
 reflecting the volatile process of imagination and memory. Unsparing\, e
 ven caustic in its instance on racism as a dominant note of American lif
 e\, but marked by surprising tenderness and humor\, How to Exi(s)t is a 
 compelling portrayal of Tran’s pedagogical philosophy as well as an inte
 rrogation of a poetic language that conceals as much as it reveals. Truo
 ng Tran is a poet\, visual artist\, and teacher born in Saigon\, Vietnam
 . His book-length poetry project Book of the Other: Small in Comparison 
 (2021) received an American Book Award in 2022. He is the author of seve
 n other collections\, The Book of Perceptions\, Placing the Accents\, Du
 st and Conscience\, Within the Margins\, Four Letter Words\, 100 words (
 with Damon Potter)\, and Looking and Seeing/Seeing and Looking (with Dam
 on Potter). He also written the children’s book Going Home Coming Home a
 nd an artist monograph\, I Meant To Say Please Past the Sugar. His poems
  and books have been translated into Spanish\, French\, and Dutch. He is
  the recipient of the Poetry Center Prize\, the Fund for Poetry Grant\, 
 the California Arts Council Grant\, and numerous San Francisco Arts Comm
 ission Grants. Truong is also a visual artist who believes that art\, be
  it poetry\, cooking\, sculpting\, and even gardening\, are his ways of 
 thinking through the conscious of the times we live in. Truong lives in 
 San Francisco and currently teaches at Northeastern University\, Oakland
 . Garrett Caples is a poet\, editor\, and a former music and arts journa
 list. An editor at City Lights Books\, he curates the new American poetr
 y series\, City Lights Spotlight. From 2005 to 2014\, he wrote on hip ho
 p\, literature\, and painting for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He is 
 the author of numerous books\, including: Lovers of Today (2021)\, Power
  Ballads (2016)\, Retrievals (2014)\, Quintessence of the Minor: Symboli
 st Poetry in English (2010)\, Complications (2007)\, and The Garrett Cap
 les Reader (1999). He coedited the Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia (2
 013)\, Particulars of Place (2015) by Richard O. Moore\, and Incidents o
 f Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems (2016) by Frank Lima. He make
 s his home in San Francisco. Litquake is a project of the Litquake Found
 ation\, a 501(c)3 nonprofit registered in the state of California. Litqu
 ake’s diverse live programs aim to inspire critical engagement with the 
 key issues of the day\, bring people together around the common humanity
  encapsulated in literature\, and perpetuate a sense of literary communi
 ty by providing a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing. Because they belie
 ve in literature as a public good\, they work to produce events that are
  accessible to all. Visit them at https://www.litquake.org This event is
  made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation.\n\nTickets: h
 ttps://citylights.com/events/truong-tran-launch-party-for-how-to-exist-a
 -poets-memoir/\n\nhttps://findlocal.community/event/1b6753ab-5228-490e-b
 6b8-88843c9c856f
LOCATION:CCSF North Beach / Chinatown Bookstore\, CA
URL:https://findlocal.community/event/1b6753ab-5228-490e-b6b8-88843c9c856
 f
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SEQUENCE:0
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