Chuckanut Radio Hour Presents: Kim Fu in conversation with Jane Wong

Musical guest: To be announced!

Location: Hotel Leo Crystal Ballroom

"Addictive…. I looked up from this book and saw everything around me in higher definition." -Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised and Tiger’s Mouth

In the aftermath of her mother’s death, Eleanor is unmoored. For years, her mother orchestrated every detail of her life—from meals, to laundry, to finances—so that Eleanor could focus on her career as a therapist. Left to navigate the world on her own, Eleanor clings to her mother’s final directive: use her inheritance to buy a house.

Desperate to obey her mother one last time, but finding few options she can afford, Eleanor impulsively buys a model home in a valley-turned-construction site, a picturesque development steeped in a shadowy history. It feels like a fresh start, until the rain comes—an endless, torrential downpour. As water seeps in through the house’s cracks, the line between what is real and what is not begins to blur. Haunted by the stories of her patients, a stream of workmen and bureaucrats she can’t trust, and visions of ghosts from her past and present, Eleanor’s reality unravels, and she is forced to reckon with the secrets she’s buried and the desperate choices she’s made.

Kim Fu is the author of two novels, a collection of poetry, and most recently, the story collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, winner of the Washington State Book Award, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, as well as a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Ignyte Awards, and the Shirley Jackson Awards. Fu lives in Seattle, Washington.

Kim will be in conversation with:

Jane Wong is the author of the memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, 2023). She also wrote two poetry collections: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James, 2021) and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room, Artist Trust, Hedgebrook, UCross, Loghaven, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, and others. An interdisciplinary artist as well, she has exhibited her poetry installations and performances at the Frye Art Museum, Richmond Art Gallery, and the Asian Art Museum. She grew up in a take-out restaurant on the Jersey shore and is an Associate Professor at Western Washington University. Find her on Instagram @paradeofcats.

The Chuckanut Radio Hour, a recipient of Bellingham's prestigious Mayor's Arts Award, is a radio variety show that began in January 2007. Each Chuckanut Radio Hour includes guest authors, musicians, performance poet Kevin Murphy, and episodes of "As the Ham Turns" serial radio comedy, performed by the Chuckanut Radio Players that include Les Campbell, Robert Muzzy, Tonja Meyers, Sarah, Hawley, Mish Kriz, Lucas Naylor, Cindy Whiston, and Jeff Brawsley. Not to mention groaner jokes by hosts Paul Hanson, Kelly Evert, and announcer Rich Donnelly. The Chuckanut Radio Hour's first guest was Erik Larson and has since included Tom Robbins, Maria Semple, Christopher McDougall, Erica Bauermeister, Sasha LaPointe, Cheryl Strayed, Simon Winchester, and Garrison Keillor, among many others. With so many episodes under our belts, there's more guests than we can list! You can listen to previously recorded programs Sundays at 7pm on Community Powered KMRE 88.3, or anywhere you listen to podcasts!

*Feel free to call Village Books and Paper Dreams for further assistance at 360-671-2626!*

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