Hi all, Just wanted to share an opportunity to hear from Jean Kwok tonight (May 12th) at 7:00 pm in Bay City! This event is completely free and open to the public, generously provided by our Friends of the Bay County Library System. Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling author of The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Her books have been chosen by Read with Jenna, CBS New York, Book of the Month, LibraryReads, Indie Next, Goodreads Choice Awards, Belletrist, Discover Great New Writers, and as a Good Morning America Buzz Pick. Most of her work is in development for film and television. She has been chosen for numerous honors including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award, an Orange New Writers title and the Sunday Times Short Story Award international shortlist. She was one of twelve contemporary authors asked by the Agatha Christie estate to write an original, authorized Miss Marple story for Marple: Twelve New Mysteries. Jean immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood while living in an unheated, roach-infested apartment. In between her undergraduate degree at Harvard and MFA in fiction at Columbia, she worked for three years as a professional ballroom dancer. Jean is trilingual, fluent in Dutch, Chinese and English, and studied Latin for seven years. She has appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America, and spoken at many schools and venues including Harvard University, Columbia University, Talks at Google and the Tucson Festival of Books. A television documentary was filmed about Jean and her work. She reviews for the New York Times Book Review and has served as fiction judge for International Thriller Writers, Tucson Festival of Books, Ragdale, and San Miguel Writers Conference. Her work has been published in more than twenty countries and is taught in schools across the world. After living in the Netherlands for many years, she now lives in the New York area. The evening will feature a captivating author talk where Jean will share insights on her life, career, and creative process. Following the talk, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions during a live Q&A session and have their books signed. Copies of Jean's books will also be available for purchase at the event. https://www.baycountylibrary.org/event/evening-jean-kwok-111809