Hickory – The Lenoir-Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series is in its 32nd season and will host Children’s author to close out season series at Lenoir-Rhyne on April 17. The series, established in 1988, features readings and presentations by authors who have distinguished themselves in literature and often meet with students to discuss the stories behind their works. The mission of the series remains the promotion of literary experiences with contemporary writers meant to engage and educate young people at LR. All events are free, and the public is welcome to attend.

*Pre-registration is required for any virtual presentations.

Kao Kalia Yang, The Little Read author
Saturday, April 17, 2021, Noon
P.E. Monroe Auditorium (Virtual Presentation)
Children’s author to close out season series at Lenoir-Rhyne

In its 15th year, “The Little Read” will bring nationally recognized children’s author, Kao Kalia Yang to Lenoir-Rhyne. Concluding the season’s series of events, Yang, a Hmong-American writer born in the refugee camps of Thailand to a family that escaped the genocide of the Secret War in Laos, came to America at the age six.

She is the author of “The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir,” winner of the 2009 Minnesota Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir and Readers’ Choice, and “The Song Poet,” winner of the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Creative Nonfiction Memoir.

This fall, Yang debuted her first children’s book, “A Map Into the World,” which is also the first literary published children’s book by a Hmong-American writer centered on a Hmong-American family. It is the story of a young Hmong girl’s discovery of the changing seasons of a year and the different seasons of a life. This distinctive story weaves together threads of family life, community and culture, the natural world and the power of stories. Yang’s newest children’s book “The Shared Room” was published in the spring. This fall, she will release two more books – a collective memoir about refugee lives titled “Somewhere in the Unknown World” and another children’s book “The Most Beautiful Thing.”

About the Visitor Writers Series
LR’s VWS is supported by the United Arts Council of Catawba County through the North Carolina Arts Council, with funding from the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sponsors of the 2020-2021 VWS include: Cafe Rule, Crowne Plaza Hickory, Footcandle Film Society of Catawba County, Hickory Public Library and National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information, visit lr.edu/VWS or call the LR Box Office Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., at 828.328.7206.
Author Kao Kalia Yang