BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.5//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:158410@kingstonhappenings.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261015T190000 DTSTAMP:20260924T145753Z URL:https://kingstonhappenings.org/events/biography-and-invention-in-the-n ovel-with-amitava-kumar-aatish-taseer-and-ryan-chapman/ SUMMARY:Biography and Invention in the Novel\, with Amitava Kumar\, Aatish Taseer\, and Ryan Chapman DESCRIPTION:How does a writer represent the self across memoir\, journalism \, and fiction? How does contemporary fiction wrestle with questions of tr ansnational identity\, migration\, and exile? Three Hudson Valley writers will debate all this and more in the Louw-Bogardus Ruin.\nAmitava Kumar is the author of several works of nonfiction and four novels. The books of n onfiction include Husband of a Fanatic\, A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb\, and A Matter of Rats. His novel Immigrant\, Mont ana was on the best of the year lists at The New Yorker\, The New York Tim es\, and President Obama’s list of favorite books of 2018. His next nove l A Time Outside This Time was described by the New Yorker as “a shimmer ing assault on the Zeitgeist.” Kumar’s latest novel\, My Beloved Life\ , was praised by James Wood as “beautiful\, truthful fiction.”\nAatish Taseer is the author of the memoirs A Return to Self\, long-listed for t he NBCC Award for Nonfiction\, and Stranger to History\; the acclaimed nov els The Way Things Were\, The Temple-Goers\, and Noon\; and the memoir and travelogue The Twice-Born. He is a writer at large for T: The New York Ti mes Style Magazine.\nRyan Chapman is a Sri Lankan-American writer from Min neapolis\, Minnesota\, who lives in Kingston\, New York. His second novel The Audacity (Soho Press\, 2024) was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize\, and received praise from Vanity Fair\, The Washington Post\, and L iterary Hub. His debut novel Riots I Have Known (Simon &\; Schuster\, 2 019) was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and n amed a best book of the year by Electric Literature and The Marshall Proje ct. His criticism and humor pieces have appeared in Bookforum\, The New Yo rker\, The Guardian\, The New York Times\, McSweeney's\, The Los Angeles T imes\, and elsewhere.\nSupported by Arts Mid-Hudson and the New York Counc il on the Arts\, and presented with Rough Draft Bar &\; Books and Frien ds of Historic Kingston. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://kingstonhappenings.org/wp-content/upload s/2026/09/kumar-taseer-chapman.jpg CATEGORIES:@Featured,@Newsletter,Educational classes and lectures,Nightlife and entertainment LOCATION:Frog Alley\, 48 Frog Alley\, KINGSTON\, NY\, 12401\, Afghanistan GEO:41.935833;-74.023268 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=48 Frog Alley\, KINGSTON\, NY\, 12401\, Afghanistan;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Frog Alley:geo:41.9358 33,-74.023268 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20260308T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR