Two National Book Award finalists visited UWM in the span of one week to talk with faculty, staff and students.
UWM hosted a talk on Sept. 28 with Min Jin Lee, whose novel “Pachinko” is a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. Students, faculty and staff were able to ask her questions about her work.
Her novel follows multiple generations of a Korean immigrant family in 20th-century Japan as its characters grapple with the meaning of family, questions of identity, and challenges of belonging in the face of discrimination and displacement.
The Asian studies program and the Center for International Education sponsored the event, and the creative writing and public history programs co-presented.
On Wednesday, Oct. 4, UWM hosted a public talk with Nancy MacLean, whose book “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America” is a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Her book traces the history of how Nobel Prize-winning economist James McGill Buchanan formulated his theories in the wake of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
The Department of History and the UWM chapter of the American Association of University Professors co-sponsored the event.
The National Book Award winners will be announced Nov. 15.
