Tuesday, Feb 24, 2015

Nicholas Jose and Linda Jaivin in Conversation at Asia Bookroom

Join us to celebrate the publication of Bapo

6pm Tuesday February 24, 2015


Bapo, the title of Nicholas Jose's new collection of stories refers to an unusual kind of Chinese painting, that tricks the eye into thinking it sees a collage of fragments. Bapo means 'eight broken', where eight is a Chinese lucky number and 'broken' suggests that luck has run out, though there's another kind of luck in simply surviving and holding it all together, less glorious maybe, but not so bad in the long run. The stories feature a cast of characters, artists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, refugees, families at the crossroads. They are all held by the past in some way, its hope, idealism, romance, adventure - and aware of its susceptibility to corruption, disappointment or manipulation.
Many explore Australia's relationship to China or have echoes of China in them; others dwell on the qualities of memory, resilience, play and adventure - qualities which are implicit in the form of bapo, and characteristic of Jose's writing as a whole.

About the author
Nicholas Jose was Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Beijing from 1987 to 1990, at a vital moment in China's history, and has played an important role in artistic relations between the two countries since then. He is the author of seven highly regarded novels, three collections of short stories, a memoir and essays, mostly on Australian and Asian culture. He was president of International PEN Sydney Centre (2002-05), general editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature (2009), and Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard University, 2009-10. Professor Jose teaches Creative Writing at The University of Adelaide, where he is a member of the J M Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice.

Nicholas Jose will be in conversation with Linda Jaivin who is the internationally published author of eleven books, seven fiction and four non-fiction. Linda is also the author of numerous published short stories and essays, including Quarterly Essay 52: Found in Translation: In Praise of a Plural World. She has also written for the theatre and is a literary and film translator from Chinese.

Do not miss what is sure to be an entertaining and insightful evening.

When: 6pm Tuesday February 24th, 2015

Where: Asia Bookroom, Unit 2, 1 - 3 Lawry Place, Macquarie. ACT

RSVP: By February 23rd, either by phoning 6251 5191 or Email Us

Admission by gold coin donation to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation

If you can't join us on February the 24th and would like to buy a signed copy of Nicholas Jose's Bapo, email us and we will organise this for you.