The Writer’s Center welcomes writer Alice Stephens for a reading from her novel, The Twain: A Tale of Nagasaki. Alice is joined in conversation by writer Dorothy Reno.
FREE & open to the public. RSVP below.
Author of the novel, Famous Adopted People (Unnamed Press, 2018), Alice Stephens was among the first wave of intercountry, transracial adoptees from Korea. She is also a book reviewer, essayist, short story writer, co-founder of The Adoptee Literary Festival, member of the Starlings Collective, and board member of The Writer’s Center. Her work has appeared in LitHub, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Margins, the Korea Times, the Washington Post, and other publications. Her historical novel, The Twain: A Tale of Nagasaki, is forthcoming from Regal House Publishing on February 2, 2027. She is currently working on a collection of autofictional short stories that tell the story of her adoption. Learn more about her on her website, https://www.alicestephens.com/ or follow her on Instagram @alicestephensbooks.
Dorothy Reno is a short story writer, essayist, and columnist. Her column, Considering the Classics, has been appearing in the Washington Independent Review of Books for ten years.
About the Book
In the crossroads of East and West, survival comes at a cost. Thomas A. Glover—also known as Kuraba Tomisaburo—was born into a life of privilege. The son of a pioneering Scottish trader and a Japanese mother, he grows up in Ipponmatsu, his father’s grand home in Nagasaki, one of Japan’s most international cities once the country opens its doors to trade. After studying in America, Thomas returns with Agnes Easter, a young mixed-race woman who becomes housekeeper at Ipponmatsu. As Japan prospers, so do they—Agnes finds love, marries, and raises a family while navigating the delicate balance between tradition and the expatriate community. But as nationalism tightens its grip, those of mixed heritage are shunned, and Thomas and Agnes find themselves marked as enemies of the state. In a nation that no longer welcomes them, their bond—and their wits—may be the only things that can keep them alive.
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