American Writers Festival 2013

On 25 September, School of Arts and Social Sciences hosted Shawn Wong and Moira Crone, here as part of this year's American Writers Festival, an annual collaboration between SMU and the American Embassy.

Wong is a professor of English at the University of Washington. His novels include his award-winning first novel Homebase and American Knees, which was adapted into an independent feature film, entitled Americanese. Among Wong's six other books is the landmark Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers. Crone is a professor emerita at Louisiana State University. Her short story collections include The Winnebago Mysteries and What Gets Into Us. Her novel The Not Yet was a finalist for last year's Philip K. Dick Award for best original science fiction paperback.

Students, alumni, staff, and associates were treated to readings from Wong's novel-in-progress about a Classics professor. Crone read excerpts "Desire", one of the short stories from her collection Dream State. A lively Q&A session followed the readings, with topics ranging from separating the writer from the professor, to writing in the modern age, and even editors and the editorial process.