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R. O. Kwon with Sheela Jane Menon: Exhibit

  • 1302 North 3rd Street Harrisburg, PA, 17102 United States (map)

The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is thrilled to welcome bestselling author R.O. Kwon to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on her new novel, Exhibit. Kwon will be in conversation with Dickinson College professor Sheela Jane Menon. This event is free and open to the public.

To enter the signing line, books must be purchased from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, or you may preorder a copy of the book for pickup/shipment. Preordered copies will not be signed until after the event.

About the Book:

From bestselling author R. O. Kwon, an exhilarating, blazing-hot novel about a woman caught between her desires and her life.

At a lavish party in the hills outside of San Francisco, Jin Han meets Lidija Jung and nothing will ever be the same for either woman. A brilliant young photographer, Jin is at a crossroads in her work, in her marriage to her college love Philip, and in who she is and who she wants to be. Lidija is an alluring, injured world-class ballerina on hiatus from her ballet company under mysterious circumstances. Drawn to each other by their intense artistic drives, the two women talk all night.

Cracked open, Jin finds herself telling Lidija about an old familial curse, breaking a lifelong promise. She’s been told that if she doesn’t keep the curse a secret, she risks losing everything; death and ruin could lie ahead. As Jin and Lidija become more entangled, they realize they share more than the ferocity of their ambition, and begin to explore hidden desires. Something is ignited in Jin: her art, her body, and her sense of self irrevocably changed. But can she avoid the specter of the curse? Vital, bold, powerful, and deeply moving, Exhibit asks: how brightly can you burn before you light your life on fire?

About the Author:

R.O. Kwon is the author of the nationally bestselling novel The Incendiaries, which was translated into seven languages, named a best book of the year by over forty publications, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award. With Garth Greenwell, Kwon coedited the bestselling Kink, a New York Times Notable Book and the recipient of the inaugural Joy Award. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States.

Sheela Jane Menon is Associate Professor of English at Dickinson College, where she teaches Asian American and postcolonial literature. Her research focuses on questions of race and identity in Malaysian cultural production, and is informed by her upbringing in Malaysia, Singapore, and Honolulu. Her work has been published in ARIEL, Verge, and The Conversation, among others.