Author: Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls

Tuesday, 12/2/2025
6:00 - 7:00
Virtual Library

United States

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Listen as dancer and novelist Benedict Nguyễn surveys topics ranging from physical injury, psychic shock absorption, the syntax of play-by-play and swaying the referee. 

In sports, "high performance" directors calibrate the development of athletes to perform at the peak of their abilities at the right time. In theater, artists calibrate carefully every affect of their body for public witness. In this this talk, Nguyễn parses the flimsy curtain between self-surveillance and the impossible pursuit of excellence.

This program is sponsored by the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center.

About the presenter: Benedict Nguyễn (she/her) is a #freelanceflailing dancer, writer and creative producer who's taught workshops for Asian American Writers' Workshop (AAWW), Tin House and at Louis Place. She’s danced in recent projects by Sally Silvers, Kris Seto, Monstah Black, among other choreographers, appeared in the short film “Don’t F*ck with Bà” (2024, dir. Sally Tran) and began developing the dance theater work “DEFENSE” with Sugar Vendil in 2025. As a producer, she's supported projects that have been presented at the New York Botanical Garden, tba21, ISSUE Project Room, Center for Performance Research, Danspace Project and Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance!, among others. 

A Publishers Weekly 2025 Writer to Watch, she is the author of the [redacted] freelance labor zine nasty notes (2022). Her debut novel Hot Girls with Balls (Catapult, 2025) was an ABA Indie Next Pick and a USA Today National Bestseller. Her writing on labor and culture has appeared in The Baffler, BOMB Magazine, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Review of Books and AAWW’s The Margins. 

Connect: Benedict Nguyễn - Website | Benedict Nguyễn - Instagram | "Don't F*ck with Bà" Short Film - Instagram

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LGBTQIA+ Interest

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For more resources, the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center is the gateway to the Library’s broader collections documenting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual history and culture, with a special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area.

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This program will be conducted in English unless otherwise noted.

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