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The Center for Fiction Presents: Yiyun Li on The Book of Goose with Rivka Galchen in Partnership with AAWW and A Public Space

September 20, 2022

Yiyun Li’s work is beloved by writers and readers alike, and we were thrilled to bring her and Rivka Galchen to The Center for Fiction stage to celebrate her new novel. In Li’s signature lyrical, restrained prose, The Book of Goose tells the story of Fabienne and Agnés, childhood friends in postwar rural France, whose lives are irrevocably changed by Fabienne’s schemes. Obsession, art, exploitation, and loss are just some of the themes that compel the reader to keep turning the pages in this beautifully composed novel. Thanks to those who joined us to hear the genesis of these indelible characters.

Presented with AAWW and A Public Space.

In Conversation

  • Portrait of Yiyun Li 06/06/2016 ©Basso CANNARSA/Opale

    Yiyun Li

    Yiyun Li

    Yiyun Li is the author of ten books, including The Book of Goose, Where Reasons End, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, and Tolstoy Together, 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. Li’s honors and awards include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Windham Campbell Prize, the 2021 Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Benjamin H. Dank Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the PEN/Jean Stein Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Guardian First Book Award, the Asian American Literary Award for fiction, and others. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, an independent film directed by Wayne Wang and adapted by Li from her short story, was the winner of Golden Shell for best film, 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival. She teaches at Princeton University.

    Photo Credit: Basso Cannarsa/Agence Opale

  • Galchen by Sandy Tait - Zach Cihlar

    Rivka Galchen

    Rivka Galchen

    Rivka Galchen received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, having spent a year in South America working on public health issues. Galchen completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Robert Bingham Fellow. Her essay on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics was published in the Believer, and she is the recipient of a 2006 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Galchen lives in New York City. She is the author of the novels Atmospheric Disturbances and Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch.

    Photo Credit: Sandy Tait