WILDE LOVE: a literary reading from Rolling the R's and The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart

The leading transpacific writer and poet R. Zamora Linmark would provide two events at UBC focusing on the lived histories of empire in The Philippines and Hawai’i. First, he would give a large public talk about the genesis for his two novels, the groundbreaking Rolling the R’s, and his latest novel, The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart (2019). Written in a playful pastiche style, Rolling the R’s was one of the first novels to depict queer diasporic youth in Hawaii (Kalihi), focusing on the poor Filipino immigrant communities grappling with industries of tourism, militarism, education, and celebrity culture. His new novel, The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart, is a tender, quirky story of a seventeen-year-old boy’s journey through queer love and heartbreak. Linmark will discuss his writing process, and the challenges he created and encountered. This talk will be supplemented by a workshop with UBC students on the narrative collage where he will also provide a Q & A.

Organized by the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster, and co-sponsored by Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, and the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice.