Recently named a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant award winner, Li is a Chinese immigrant who has won national recognition for her writing. Li was raised in Beijing and landed in the United States in 1996. Her first novel, The Vagrants, depicts the execution of a young woman who was a counterrevolutionary and how the execution affects the people of the small town. Lis first collection of short stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, follows characters in modern-day China dealing with a history of repression. Her new book is another collection, Gold Boy, Emerald Girl: Stories. Lis story “The Science of Flight” was part of The New Yorkers 20 Under 40 Fiction issue. The Oakland author’s work has also been published in Best American Short Stories and O Henry Prize Stories. KEITH BOWERS
Mon., Oct. 25, 7 p.m., 2010
