• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Maxine Hong Kingston, editor of “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace,” author of many books including Warrior Woman, China Men, and The Fifth Book of Peace

Maxine Hong Kingston is a well-known writer and poet based in Oakland, California. In 1976 she wrote the acclaimed novel, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts,” which explored ethnicity and gender roles, especially in the context of her experience as a Chinese-American woman. The Warrior Woman, and her follow up novel, China Men both won the National Book Critic’s Circle Award. In 1991, a firestorm in Oakland wiped out Maxine’s home as well as an unfinished manuscript. She turned that experience into an opportunity to teach writing to war veterans and for years now has conducted writing workshops with hundreds of veterans and their families. These experiences became the focus of a book called “The Fifth Book of Peace.” Many of the writings from her workshops are published in a new anthology she edited called “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace” which features the words of war veterans and peace activists. I spoke with Maxine Hong Kingston recently and asked her to describe this new book.

Maxine Hong Kingston will be speaking at the following events in Los Angeles:

October 1st at 11 am at Descanso Gardens, 1418 Descanso Drive in La Canada Flintrdige, CA 91011. Maxine Hong Kingston will be awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Red Hen Press Annual Awards. Tickets are $85 per person. Visit www.redhen.org for more information.

October 2nd at 7:30 pm at Whittier College Writers festival at the Shannon Center, Whittier College (see www.shannoncenter.org for directions).