Nov
7
2:00am
Ed Lin and Naomi Hirahara discuss "David Tung Can't Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College"
By Vroman's & Book Soup Live
About the book
In David Tung Can't Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College, novelist Ed Lin conjures up "a fast-paced, acid-tongued, hilarious teen drama for our age," says Marie Myung-Ok Lee, acclaimed author of Somebody's Daughter and Finding My Voice. Both playful and wryly observant, Ed Lin's YA-debut explores coming-of-age in the Asian diaspora while navigating relationships through race, class, and young love. David Tung, our nerd-hero, is a Chinese American high-school student who works in his family's restaurant, competes for top grades at his regular high school located in an upscale, Asian-majority New Jersey suburb, and attends weekend Chinese school in NYC's working-class Chinatown. While David faces parental pressures to get As and conform to cultural norms and expectations, he's caught up in the complicated world of high school love triangles--and amid these external pressures is the fear he will die alone, whether he gets into Harvard or not! (Kaya Press)
About the speakers
Ed Lin, a native New Yorker of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards and is an all-around standup kinda guy. His books include Waylaid, and a mystery trilogy set in New York’s Chinatown in the ‘70s: This Is a Bust, Snakes Can’t Run and One Red Bastard. Ghost Month, published by Soho Crime, is a Taipei-based mystery, and Incensed and 99 Ways to Die continue that series. David Tung Can’t Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College, his first YA novel, is published by Kaya Press in October 2020. Lin lives in Brooklyn with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung, and son.
Naomi Hirahara is the Edgar Award–winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series. Also nominated for the Macavity and Anthony awards, the series includes Summer of the Big Bachi, Gasa-Gasa Girl, Snakeskin Shamisen, Blood Hina, Strawberry Yellow, and Sayonara Slam. She is also the author of the Ellie Rush series (Berkley) and the new Life After Manzanar (Heyday Books). A graduate of Stanford University, Naomi has also written many books about gardening and Japanese American history and culture and has contributed to several anthologies and collaborative books, including Los Angeles Noir, Santa Cruz Noir and Prospect Park’s upcoming Hometown Pasadena.
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