If you haven’t had a chance to pick up the One Book, One Chicago selection of short stories Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, then check out the excerpt posted in The New Yorker from the title story. Yiyun Li’s prose is spectacular, and she tells beautiful stories of people who live on the margins of life. They guard their secrets jealously, and when you’ve finished the stories, you put the book down and feel like you’ve earned the right to hear their unique perspectives and stories.

Now, if you haven’t had the chance to attend any of the events for One Book, One Chicago–you’re in luck, there’s one tomorrow morning!

Chinese Literary Forms and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
Friday, April 27, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
DePaul University, Lincoln Park Campus
John T. Richardson Library
2350 N. Kenmore Avenue, Room 300 (Rosati Room)

James Shea (Nebraska Wesleyan University) and Dorothy Tse Hiu Hung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) discuss classical literary forms as background to the stories in Gold Boy, Emerald Girl. Shea’s lecture, “Classical Chinese Poetry and Yiyun Li’s Gold Boy, Emerald Girl,” explores the Chinese quatrains that were popular during the Tang dynasty (618-907), and is followed by an informal poetry-writing exercise. In her lecture, “Another Kind of Beauty: Gold Boy, Emerald Girl in the Cultural Revolution,” Tse provides background to Li’s collection by investigating the characterization and plot structure found in revolutionary “model operas.”