Hua Hsu

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Hua Hsu
Born1977 (age 46–47)
Champaign–Urbana, Illinois, U.S.
Education University of California, Berkeley (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
Occupation(s) Professor, writer
Employer(s) Bard College
The New Yorker
Notable workA Floating Chinaman
Stay True

Hua Hsu (born 1977) [1] is an American writer and academic, based in New York City. He is a professor of English at Bard College and a staff writer at The New Yorker . His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as well as public perceptions of diversity and multiculturalism. He is the author of A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific. His second book, Stay True: A Memoir , was published in September 2022.

Contents

Early life and education

A second-generation Taiwanese American, Hsu was born in 1977 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, [2] before moving to Plano, then Richardson, Texas. [3] His family moved to southern California, [3] then ultimately Cupertino, California, [4] where his father was an engineer; his mother stayed at home with Hua. [3] The family lived in Cupertino from about the time Hua was 9 to 18, though his father moved to Taiwan to pursue work and Hua often spent summers and other school vacations there. [5]

Hsu attended college at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied political science. [3] He graduated in 1999. [3] He next attended Harvard University to study Asian-American literature, [3] earning a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization in 2008. [6] Louis Menand advised his dissertation, [7] titled Pacific Crossings: China, the United States, and the Transpacific Imagination. [6]

Career

Hsu was a tenured associate professor of English and director of American Studies at Vassar College [8] until 2022, when he became professor of English at Bard College. [9] Since 2017, he has also been a staff writer at The New Yorker . [10] His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as well as public perceptions of diversity and multiculturalism. Other research work and interests include studies of literary history and arts criticism. [11]

Hsu has been a fellow at New America, a public policy think tank and a contributor to The New Yorker , The Atlantic , Slate, and The Wire. [12] [13] [14] His 2012 essay for Lucky Peach about suburban Chinatowns was nominated for a 2012 James Beard Award for food writing. [15] He is a board member of the Asian American Writers' Workshop. [16] His book, A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific, [17] was published in June 2016 by Harvard University Press. [18] He was a 2016 National Fellow for the New America Foundation. [19]

Hsu's second book, Stay True: A Memoir, about an important friendship he had while in college, was published by Doubleday on September 27, 2022. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly . [20] Jennifer Szalai of The New York Times wrote, "Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of 'Stay True' sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout." [21] The book was named one of the "10 Best Books of 2022" by The New York Times [22] and The Washington Post . [23] The book won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography [24] and the 2022 National Book Critics Circle award in autobiography. [25]

Personal life

Hsu lives in Brooklyn. [26] He is married with a son. [3]

Bibliography

Books

Essays and reporting

———————

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 Available on website only.
  2. ↑ Title in the online table of contents is "Kanye West realizes his dreams".
  3. ↑ Online version is titled "Mackelmore, the hip-hop villain".
  4. ↑ Online version is titled "White plight?".
  5. ↑ Online version is titled "Alice Coltrane’s devotional music".
  6. ↑ Online version is titled "Kendrick Lamar's holy spirit".
  7. ↑ Online version is titled "Bjõrk's visions of an enchanted future".
  8. ↑ Online version is titled "Electronic pop for the surveillance era".
  9. ↑ Online version is titled "The Asian-American canon breakers".
  10. ↑ Online version is titled "Beverly Glenn-Copeland's music for a future that never came".
  11. ↑ Online version is titled "Paul McCartney's surprisingly playful pandemic album".
  12. ↑ Online version is titled "The obsessive beat-making of Madlib".
  13. ↑ Online version is titled "The rise of the athlete podcaster".
  14. ↑ Online version is titled "Saint Etienne's Nineties nostalgia".

See also

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<i>Stay True</i> (memoir) 2022 book by Hua Hsu

Stay True is a 2022 memoir by Hua Hsu, published by Anchor Books and Doubleday, both imprints of Penguin Random House. The memoir depicts Hsu's unlikely relationship with a college friend named Ken, a friendship that was unexpectedly and tragically cut short when Ken was killed in a carjacking in 1998.

References

  1. ↑ Spaeth, Ryu (September 20, 2022). "Hua Hsu Is True to the Game". Vulture. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
  2. ↑ Hsu, Hua (August 15, 2022). "My Dad and Kurt Cobain". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Episode 29: Professor and New Yorker Writer Hua Hsu by Mary H.K. Choi". Hey, Cool Job. March 16, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Angry Reader of the Week: Hua Hsu".
  5. ↑ Hsu, Hua (June 18, 2012). "How Rock Ballads Brought My Father's American Dream To Life". NPR. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Alumni Publications". American Studies – The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  7. ↑ Mistry, Anupa (June 9, 2016). "Yaa Gyasi And Hua Hsu Talk About Writing". The Fader. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Hua Hsu - English Department - Vassar College". english.vassar.edu. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  9. ↑ College, Bard. "Hua Hsu". www.bard.edu. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Hua Hsu". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Vassar Faculty and Staff". Vassar English Department. Vassar College. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Hua Hsu, New America Fellow". New America. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Authors: Hua Hsu". Slate.
  14. ↑ "Author: Hua Hsu". The Atlantic.
  15. ↑ Forbes, Paula (March 18, 2013). "Here Are the 2013 James Beard Awards Finalists". Eater. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  16. ↑ Romano, Evan (March 13, 2017). "Brooklyn 100 Influencer: Hua Hsu, The 'New Yorker'". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  17. ↑ Nguyen, Viet Thanh (July 22, 2016). "Reconsidering the Work of a Chinese Immigrant Writer of the 1930s". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  18. ↑ "Contributors: Hua Hsu". The New Yorker . Retrieved February 16, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Hua Hsu". New America. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  20. ↑ "Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu". Publishers Weekly. May 19, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
  21. ↑ Szalai, Jennifer (September 29, 2022). "A Formative Friendship Cut Short by Tragedy". New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  22. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2022". The New York Times . November 29, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  23. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2022". The Washington Post . November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  24. ↑ "2023 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists". The Pulitzer Prizes. May 8, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  25. ↑ Varno, David (February 1, 2023). "NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR PUBLISHING YEAR 2022". National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved February 3, 2023.
  26. ↑ "The 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture 2017". Brooklyn Magazine. March 13, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
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