Rahna Reiko Rizzuto

Rahna Reiko Rizzuto will be reading from her new novel, Hiroshima in the Morning as part of the Asia Society’s new series of lunch time author programs.

The horrors of war are something the vast majority of us contemplate from a distance yet these events can have a profound effect—both politically and personally—on us all. Nick Flynn (The Ticking is the Bomb), Feryal Ali Gauhar (No Space for Further Burials), and Rahna Reiko Rizzuto (Hiroshima in ... (more)the Morning) talk with Amy Goodman about their own deep engagement with the atrocities of conflict and discuss their depiction in both fiction and non-fiction, and the way these events can shape both our identity and engagement with our everyday lives. Please arrive at least 30 minutes before your scheduled appearance. When you first arrive, please check in at 180 Remsen Street (between Court and Clinton Streets). There will be refreshments available and we will introduce you to the moderator/introducer of your panel or reading and also to the other authors who will be participating. You will be escorted to your program as a group 15 minutes before it commences.

In June 2001, novelist Rahna Reiko Rizzuto left her two sons and husband in New York for a six-month visit to Hiroshima in search of testimony from survivors of the atomic bombing. The rehearsed and guarded memories offered by the hibakusha—literally, the "bomb-affected people"—break open after the ... (more)shared trauma of 9/11 into intimate, difficult remembrances. Join us in celebrating this genre-stretching memoir, which weaves together the personal and historic, Hiroshima and 9/11, past and present. Get your party-favor note pad, grab a glass of wine or lemonade, and listen to her advice on how to collect difficult stories from strangers and families, and anecdotes on what she wish she had and had not asked the survivors, showing us how to write our own histories. Please join us for the celebration! $5 suggested donation Open to the public At The Asian American Writers' Workshop 110-112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor Between 6th and 7th Avenues Buzzer 600 New York, NY 10001

In June 2001, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto went to Hiroshima to interview survivors of the atomic bomb detonation, in search of a deeper understanding of her war-torn heritage. Then the attacks on September 11 changed everything. The survivors’ carefully constructed memories were shattered,... causing them ... (more)to relive their agonizing experiences and to open up to Rizzuto in astonishing ways. Rizzuto’s narrative of the survivors’ stories is intertwined with the story of her own crumbling marriage and ambivalence about being a wife and mother, and the parallel narratives explore the role of memory in all our lives. Rizzuto talks about these themes this evening with her friend and former student Kathryn Cullen-Dupont, an associate adjunct professor at Pratt Institute and author of several books on women's studies.