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Xiaolu Guo: I am China

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Chinese-born English writer Xiaolu Guo is one of the most distinctive and exciting voices in contemporary literature. She is also an award-winning filmmaker and the Weather Station writer in residence at Free Word, London, a global initiative that places literature and storytelling at the heart of the conversations around climate change.

Xiaolu’s latest novel is I am China. Set in London, Dover and Beijing, I am China tells the story of translator Iona Kirkpatrick, who uncovers a tale of two lovers separated by distance and political intervention. Jian, an exiled musician, is trapped in a detention centre while his girlfriend Mu tries to track him down through desperate letters to the authorities. As Iona is drawn deeper into their story, she resolves to do whatever she can to reunite the couple, irrespective of the consequences.

Xiaolu’s previous novels have been nominated for the Orange Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Award, and her films have featured at the Locarno, Sundance and Venice Film Festivals. One of Granta magazine’s Best Young British Novelists Under 40, Xiaolu will discuss I am China, her body of work, the Weather Stations project, and what it means to be caught between two worlds.

Featuring

Dan Edwards

Dan Edwards is a freelance writer, journalist and academic whose work has appeared in the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, RealTime, Crikey and New Matilda. He lived in Beijing 2007-11, where he was the web editor for The Beijinger magazine. His forthcoming book Independent Chinese Documentary: Alter... Read more

Xiaolu Guo

One of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists under 40, Xiaolu Guo is profound, incisive, funny and often disturbingly accurate. Guo is author of A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and Writer and Director of UFO in Her Eyes. ... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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