Events

Oct. 24: Author's Presentation, Summer Read

Cordiner Hall
Monday, October 24, 7:30 PM

Anne Fadiman, author of "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down," will present a lecture to the Whitman community as part of the 2011 Summer Read.

“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures” is a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman that chronicles the struggles of a Hmong refugee family from Sainyabuli Province, Laos, the Lees, and their interactions with the health care system in Merced, Calif.

Fadiman is the author of two essay collections, “At Large and At Small and Ex Libris,” and the editor of “Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love.” “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” received a National Book Critics Circle Award, an L.A. Times Book Prize, and a Salon Book Award. Her essays and articles have appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, among other publications. She is the Francis Writer-in-Residence at Yale.

Copies of "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" are available at local libraries and at the Whitman College Bookstore.

This event is free and open to the public. The lecture will be followed by a book signing by the author.

Sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost and the Dean of the Faculty, and the Whitman Events Board

Oct. 25: Interpreter's Presentation "A Spirited Journey"

Kimball Theatre
Tuesday, October 25, 7:30 PM

May Ying Ly, cultural broker and interpreter for Anne Fadiman during her writing of "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" will present her side of the story. Ly earned her master's degree in social work and continues to work extensively in the fields of healthcare and culture, and has worked in Laos. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Hmong Women's Heritage Association in Sacramento, California. Q&A to follow.

Contact:
Gillian Frew, Interim Media Relations Officer
frewga@whitman.edu