Author and Filmmaker Curtis Chin will offer a reading and conversation through the Distinguished Writers Series at Binghamton University. This event is free and open to the public. Beyond the interest it holds for literary scholars, filmmakers, and writers, Chin’s work speaks to the experience of the immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities in America.

Curtis Chin’s memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant was published by Little, Brown in October 2023. The book is about growing up Asian American in the Black and white city of Detroit, coming out as LGBTQ+ to his working-class immigrant community, and being a first-generation college student at the University of Michigan.

After graduating with a degree in creative writing, Chin went on to write for CNN, Bon Appetit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Boston Globe as well as for comedy shows on network television. Chin has received awards and fellowships for his work, including from ABC/Disney Television, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Chin has screened his films in twenty countries at venues including the White House, Lincoln Center, Amnesty International, SXSWEdu, and the Government of Norway. His most recent documentary, Dear Corky, a short on photographer, Corky Lee, recently premiered on American Masters (PBS), and he is currently working on a new docuseries on the history of Chinese restaurants in America.

As an organizer, Chin co-founded the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the premiere nonprofit dedicated to promoting Asian American writers. He has also worked as the Director of Outreach for the Democratic National Committee and served on Barack Obama’s Asian American Leadership Committee during his 2008 Presidential Campaign.

This event is made possible by support from the Department of English, General Literature, and Rhetoric and is cosponsored by the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies.