Roundtable Queer writing – Writing Queer

Roundtable: Queer writing – Writing Queer

1. Time: 6PM – 8PM | May 14, 2023

2. Location: Goethe-Institut Hanoi, 56-58-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Ha Noi City

3. Link to register: https://forms.office.com/e/V7xgskvU94 (Free Entry)

The event is conducted in Vietnamese with English interpretation.

They will discuss various topics such as the impact of their favourite authors, the difference between writers of different generations, the stories that shaped their identity and practice, as well as the intersection of LGBTQIA+ themes with other themes in their literacy works.

Organised by the British Council Viet Nam, hosted by ZzzReview, the event features award-winning writer Maik Cây and Nguyễn Quang Khải, and Welsh queer writer Joshua Jones.

The event is under the framework of the annual European Literature Days, which has been successfully organized in Hanoi since 2011 by EUNIC, the association of European Cultural Institutes and Embassies.

4. About the speakers

+ Born in the second half of the 80's, Maik Cây is an independent writer and filmmaker, a member of the creative group Tiếng-Thét, a person who searches for possibilities to either turn the world upside down, or turn the dark inside out, or pull a boat over a mountain, currently based in Hanoi. The recent work includes short film As I lay dying (2015), Short film ‘As I lay dying’

+ Khai Q. Nguyen is a writer and poet from Vietnam. His work has previously appeared in Mekong Review, CounterPunch, Zzz Review, and been anthologised in Suitcase of Chysanthemums by great weather of MEDIA. He holds master's degrees in literary and cultural studies from the universities of Perpgnan, St Andrews, and Santiago de Compostela.

+ Joshua Jones is a queer, neurodivergent writer from Llanelli, south Wales. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and is a qualified educator, facilitating writing workshops in Cardiff and across south Wales. He has been published by Poetry Wales, Broken Sleep Books, Nawr Magazine, Wales Arts Review and more. He has been commended by The Poetry Society, and his short fiction was an award-winner in the Rhys Davies Short Story 2021 Prize, and came 3rd place in the Reflex Fiction Winter Prize, 2021. His debut short story collection Local Fires, will be published by Parthian Books in September 2023. He is currently working on a collection of essays entitled Ghost Town to be published in 2024.

+ Quyen Nguyen is co-founder and chief editor of Zzz Review, a nonprofit online literary review in Viet Nam. She holds a PhD in English literature from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with a dissertation on James Joyce. Her research interests include literary theory, James Joyce, Irish literature, modernism, postmodernism, translation studies, and contemporary literature. Her works have been published by Palgrave Macmillan. Quyen Nguyen is also an English-Vietnamese translator with more than 14 years of experience; her published translations include "What we talk about when we talk about love" by Raymond Carver (co-translated), “Atonement” by Ian McEwan, “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides.