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THIS EVENT IS
GENEROUSLY
CO-SPONSORED BY
THE HUNTER
COLLEGE ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT AND
THE WOMEN AND
GENDER STUDIES
PROGRAM.
Please join the
Hunter College
Asian American
Studies Program
(AASP) at our
upcoming event
on Wednesday,
March 12th: a
reading and
lively
discussion with
award-winning
Asian American
novelist and
filmmaker Ruth
Ozeki.
Refreshments
will be served.
It starts with
the earth. How
can it not?
Imagine the
planet like a
split peach,
whose pit forms
the core, whose
flesh its
mantle, and
whose fuzzy skin
its crust - no,
that doesn't do
justice to the
crust, which is,
after all, where
all of life
takes place. The
earth's crust
must be more
like the rind of
the orange,
thicker and more
durable, quite
unlike the thin
skin of a
bruisable peach.
Or is it? Funny,
how you never
think to wonder.
- from ALL OVER
CREATION by Ruth
Ozeki
New York Times
Notable Book
Winner of a 2004
American Book
Award
from the Before
Columbus
Foundation
and the Willa
Literary Award
for Contemporary
Fiction
RUTH OZEKI is an
award-winning
filmmaker and
novelist, whose
work has been
characterized by
USA Today as
"ardent and
passionate...rare
and
provocative."
Her first novel,
My Year of
Meats, was
published in
1998 by Viking
Penguin and has
garnered
widespread
glowing reviews
and awards. My
Year of Meats
was an
international
success,
translated into
eleven languages
and published in
fourteen
countries. It
won the Kiriyama
Pacific Rim
Award, the Imus/Barnes
and Noble
American Book
Award, and a
Special Jury
Prize of the
World Cookbook
Awards in
Versailles.
Ozeki's second
novel, All Over
Creation (Viking
Penguin, 2003)
shifts the focus
from meat to
potatoes in a
story of a
family farmer,
his prodigal
daughter, an
itinerant gang
of environmental
activists, and a
New Age
corporate spin
doctor, whose
lives and
interests
collide in
Liberty Falls,
Idaho. In a
starred review,
Kirkus called
this cast of
characters "most
fully realized
and
heart-wrenching
in their
imperfect
yearnings," and
declared All
Over Creation,
"a feast for
mind and heart."
Ozeki was born
and raised in
New Haven,
Connecticut, by
an American
father and a
Japanese mother.
She studied
English and
Asian Studies at
Smith College
and traveled
extensively in
Asia. She
received a
Japanese
Ministry of
Education
Fellowship to do
graduate work in
classical
Japanese
literature at
Nara University.
During her years
in Japan, she
worked in
Kyoto's
entertainment or
"water" district
as a bar
hostess, studied
flower
arrangement as
well as Noh
drama and mask
carving, founded
a language
school, and
taught in the
English
Department at
Kyoto Sangyo
University.
Ozeki returned
to New York in
1985 and began a
film career as
an art director,
designing sets
and props for
low budget
horror movies.
She switched to
television
production, and
after several
years directing
documentary-style
programs for a
Japanese
company, she
started making
her own films.
Body of
Correspondence
(1994) won the
New Visions
Award at the San
Francisco Film
Festival and was
aired on PBS.
Halving the
Bones (1995), an
award-winning
autobiographical
film, tells the
story of Ozeki's
journey as she
brings her
grandmother's
remains home
from Japan. It
has been
screened at the
Sundance Film
Festival, the
Museum of Modern
Art, the
Montreal World
Film Festival,
and the Margaret
Mead Film
Festival, among
others. Ozeki's
films, now in
educational
distribution,
are shown at
universities,
museums and arts
venues around
the world.
Ozeki, a
frequent speaker
on college and
university
campuses,
currently
divides her time
between New York
City, where she
serves on the
board of Women
Make Movies, and
British
Columbia, where
she writes,
knits socks, and
raises exotic
Chinese chickens
with her
husband, artist,
Oliver
Kellhammer.
URL:
www.ruthozeki.com
For more
information,
contact the AASP
Program
Coordinator:
jennifer.hayashida@hunter.cuny.edu
URL:
www.hunter.cuny.edu/aasp
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