2022-2023
Calendar of Events
Julie Otsuka
2022-2023 Hausman Lecturer
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
4:30 pm Craft Talk @ Philadelphia Alumni Writers House
8:00 pm Reading @ Barshing Center for the Musical Arts
Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. After studying art as an undergraduate at Yale University she pursued a career as a painter for several years before later turning to writing. She received her MFA from Columbia University. Her first novel, When the Emperor Was Divine (Knopf, 2002), is about the incarceration of a Japanese-American family during World War II. It is a winner of the Asian American Literary Award and the American Library Association's Alex Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. The book is based on Otsuka’s own family history: her grandfather was arrested by the FBI as a suspected spy for Japan the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, and her mother, uncle and grandmother spent three years in a prison camp in Topaz, Utah. When the Emperor Was Divine has been assigned to all incoming freshmen at more than 60 colleges and universities and is a regular ‘Community Reads’ selection across the US.
Offering literary study and creative writing
Great things are happening in the English Department
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