Join us at PAMLA 2025 for a very special Thursday Keynote Address with acclaimed novelist and poet Maxine Hong Kingston, who will deliver “Memory and/or Oblivion” on Thursday, November 20 (11:40 am–12:40 pm) in Grand Ballroom B/C. Kingston will discuss the power of literature to save the erased and concretize spiritual visions, reading from her work and reflecting on the writer as saver, hoarder, and savior.
Maxine Hong Kingston is the author of The Woman Warrior, China Men, and The Fifth Book of Peace, among other works. She is the recipient of the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award, and the Emerson-Thoreau Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has also received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton and the Medal of Arts from President Obama. Named a Living Treasure of Hawai‘i, she is Emerita at UC Berkeley and resides in Oakland, California. Do not miss this opportunity to hear one of America’s most celebrated literary voices at PAMLA 2025!
And don’t miss our Haiku Party on Friday, November 21 (1:30–2:40 pm), featuring Maxine Hong Kingston, Marilyn Chin, and Chun Yu. Join us for a lively reading and celebration of haiku, with collaborative audience involvement, call-and-response haikus, and a discussion of the form’s unique advantages and challenges.
RSVPs requested but not required to attend this exciting Thursday Spotlight; please log into pamla.ballastacademic.com and register via the Registration tab so we can better anticipate attendance numbers.