12:00 - 12:45
United States
National Book Award–winning author Malinda Lo participates in a question-and-answer session with San Francisco and New York City youth about her highly acclaimed novel. Set in 1954 San Francisco, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, tells the story of Lily Hu, a seventeen-year-old resident of Chinatown who falls in love with Kathleen “Kath” Miller amidst a racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic society. Lily and Kath begin their discovery of who they are, what they stand for and what love means. For ages 13 and older.
Student book groups from SF’s Marina, Herbert Hoover and Roosevelt middle schools along with students from NYC’s PS 184 and PS 126 have been discussing Lo’s book as part of the series, “The Golden Door Meets the Golden Gate.” In this series, students and educators have connected with their bi-coastal peers and participated in virtual author talks based in SF Chinatown and NY Chinatown. In preparation for the author visit, educators guide discussion and youth consider themes and questions to pose. Watch the March author interview with Ed Lin, author of David Tung Can’t Have a Girlfriend Until He Gets Into an Ivy League College, set in modern-day NY Chinatown on YouTube. In this special engagement in partnership with New York Public Library, San Francisco Unified School District Libraries, and San Francisco Public Library students and educators alike are invited to listen and be inspired.
Malinda Lo is the New York Times bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, winner of the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, as well as Michael L. Printz and Walter Dean Myers honors. Her debut novel Ash, a Sapphic retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s short fiction and nonfiction has been published by The New York Times, NPR, Autostraddle, The Horn Book and multiple anthologies. She lives in Massachusetts with her wife and their dog.