May-Lan Tan is the author of Things to Make And Break, a collection of short stories. Her stories have appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, the Atlas Review, the Reader, and Areté. She lives in Berlin.

This debut collection of short fiction is the most recent collaboration between Coffee House Press and Emily Books. The 11 short stories argue that relationships between two people often contain a third presence, whether that means another person or a past or future self. Tan’s sensibility has been compared to that of Joy Williams, David Lynch, and Carmen Maria Machado.

Bonnie Chau is from Southern California, where she ran writing programs at the nonprofit 826LA. She received her MFA in fiction and translation from Columbia University. A Kundiman fellow, she works at an independent bookstore in Brooklyn and is assistant web editor at Poets & Writers.

She is the author of the short story collection All Roads Lead to Blood, published by SFWP/2040 Books, which Ben Marcus called “a remarkable debut” and Rivka Galchen said was “unforgettable.”

Anne Ishii is the Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative. She is a writer, editor and translator, who for the past ten years has worked specifically to achieve visibility and recognition for art and artists that touches on issues of gender and sexuality in the Asian diaspora.

This event will take place at Penn Book Center, 130 south 34th st, Philadelphia, PA.