April 22: Good Thunder Reading Series with Kao Kalia Yang, Tina Gross

Thursday, April 22, 2021
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
First virtual event

Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato will host writer Kao Kalia Yang and poet Tina Gross on Thursday, April 22 as the ninth and 10^th writers who will virtually attend this year’s Good Thunder Reading Series.

All Good Thunder Reading Series events are free and open to the public, and this year the events will be held virtually. A registration link for the April 22 events is available at https://minnstate.zoom.us/j/92913496546. The passcode is 156527.

The event will begin with a workshop from 10-11 a.m. and will be followed by a “Talk on Craft” from 3-4 p.m. Gross, the winner of the 2020 Robert C. Wright Award, will read from her work from 7:30-8:30 p.m.

Kao Kalia Yang is the author of “The Latehomecomer:   A Hmong Family Memoir” (winner of the 2009 Minnesota Book Award in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir); “The Song Poet: A Memoir of My Father” (winner of the 2017 Minnesota Book Award in Creative Nonfiction/Memoir); “A Map into the World” (a 2020 ALA Notable Children’s Book and Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, and winner of 2020 Minnesota Book Award for Children’s Literature). She co-edited with Shannon Gabney the anthology “What God is Honored Here,” writings on infant loss by and for Native women and women of color. Yang’s other books include “Somewhere in the Unknown World,” a themed collection of refugees’ stories, and two picture books, “The Shared Room” and “The Most Beautiful Thing.”

Tina Gross is a cataloging/metadata librarian, poet, and activist originally from Minnesota.  Some of her experimental and found poems are inspired by her library work.  Her writing has appeared in publications including “McSweeney’s Internet Tendency,” “Rogue Agent,” “The Laurel Review,” “Third Point Press” and “Poetry City, USA.”

The Good Thunder Reading Series, in its 39^th year, is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

The 2020-21 Good Thunder Reading Series receives support from the Minnesota State University, Mankato Department of English, the College of Arts and Humanities, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment, the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment and individual donors. Additional assistance comes from the Emy Frentz Arts Guild and Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Minnesota State Mankato.

For more information contact Candace Black at 507-389-2680 or visit gt.mnsu.edu.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,604 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 30 colleges and seven universities.