Join us for an evening of readings and a short-form writing workshop led by artist and poet Ahren Warner and curator Yu’an Huang.
Two worlds intersect in the first novella by artist and poet Ahren Warner, I Will Pay To Make It Bigger, (2024, prototype publishing), featuring a commissioned short story by former Delfina curator-in-residence Yu’an Huang. Huang’s serial publication project KUA (2022- ) threads thematic transnational artistic research with fiction writing, inviting readers to resonate from the other side of the world.
Set in party hostels across Southeast Asia, Warner’s novella explores what it means to consume enjoyment in the velocity of a post-globalized world and the fragile construction of self as a cultural product. His hypnotic second-person narrative and imagery lead readers through a layered blend of autofiction, docufiction, and pure fiction.
Huang’s contribution, an extended chapter from her KUA stories, intervenes in the universal “you” of Warner’s narrative, seeking to draw parallels between seemingly opposing localities and identities. In this event, Warner and Huang will discuss how they use fiction writing as a method to confront and exchange perspectives on escapist economies, transnational leisure and guilt, to wistful intimacy woven from the colonial fabric.
Following the reading and conversation, attendees will participate in a short-form writing exercise with prompts. Please bring a notebook, though a phone will suffice.
