Charles Yu
Acclaimed writer Charles Yu will be joining Huntington Trustee Simon K.C. Li on The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens’ Founders Day Lecture this Wednesday, March 2, to discuss Yu’s experiences writing in multiple genres, the role of fiction in constructing identity, and current U.S. dialogues about race and identity, among others.
Founders’ Day is observed annually at The Huntington in honor of Henry and Arabella Huntington’s roles in envisioning and establishing the institution.
Charles Yu is the author of four books, including “Interior Chinatown,” winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction, and the novel “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe,” a New York Times notable book and a Time magazine best book of the year. He received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series “Westworld.”
Yu has also written for television shows on FX and AMC. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. Together with www.TaiwaneseAmerican.org, a web portal highlighting many of the interesting people, events and organizations that make up Taiwanese America, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes in honor of his parents.
Simon K.C. Li retired from full-time journalism as an assistant managing editor of the Los Angeles Times in 2007 after 23 years there. He had also been the paper’s foreign editor, promoted for his work directing the paper’s coverage of the 1991-1992 Gulf War. He has served as a vice chairman of the Vienna-based International Press Institute and on the board of directors of Inside Climate News, which won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
Holding a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Oxford and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University, Li was elected to serve on The Huntington’s Board of Governors in 2010 and to the Board of Trustees in 2019. He also serves on the board of the Huntington Memorial Hospital, Pasadena.
Attendees at the event on Wednesday will be given the opportunity to submit questions for Charles Yu during event registration.
You can choose to attend either of two in-person sessions Wednesday at Rothenberg Hall: 3 to 4 p.m., and 7 to 8 p.m.
To RSVP, visit: www.huntington.org/events/
For more information, call (626) 405-2100.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens are at 1151 Oxford Road in San Marino.
