Book of My Life with Celeste Ng

About Transformations by Anne Sexton.

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Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2024 23:00 tot 23:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - Studio A
Price Early bird price until 26 December €25
Regular €30
All up to 30 years / Ooievaarspas €15
DenHaagPas €27,50

Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Hassnae Bouazza.

Celeste Ng chose as her favorite Transformations (1971) by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Anne Sexton: this collection of poem-stories is a strange, wondrous retelling of Grimms' fairy tales including Snow WhiteRumpelstilskin and Rapunzel.

Celeste Ng

(USA, 1980) is coming to the Netherlands for the first time to appear at the 2024 Writers Unlimited festival. Her three novels are true page-turners. At this time, Ng is the most internationally read author with Asian roots. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), is a sensitive portait of a family of several cultures. Little Fires Everywhere (2017), an even bigger hit, was filmed featuring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington (available on Prime). Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts (2022), is about the love between mother and child and humanity in dark times, but also about the discrimination of people with an Asian background. Ng grew up in Pittsburgh and Shaker Heights (Ohio) and studied at Harvard University. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian.
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Hassnae Bouazza

(Morocco, 1973) is a journalist, columnist, translator, researcher and producer. She publishes in various media (including Dutch national daily newspaper NRC and women's magazine Linda); runs her own online magazine for culture lovers, Aicha Qandisha. She compiled a story collection about Arab women, Achter de sluier (Behind the Veil, 1999); 2013 saw the publication of her book Arabieren kijken (Looking at Arabs), about "ordinary" people in the Arab world. She made TV programs for various broadcasters, including the documentary series Seks en de Zonde (Sex and Sin). Together with Michelin-starred chef Soenil Bahadoer, she wrote the culinary books Spicy Chef (2020) and Streetfood (2022). She published two further books in 2022: Een koffer vol citroenen (A Suitcase Full of Lemons), a requiem for and portrait of her mother, and Arbeidsmigranten in Nederland (Migrant Labourers in the Netherlands).
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