Essayist Sarah Chihaya in Conversation with Aman Garcha, Associate Professor of English at The Ohio State University
Thursday, November 13 at 7:00 PM AT thurber center
This event is co-presented by The Ohio State University Humanities Institute and English Department.
You will have the opportunity to ask the speaker questions after the event, purchase books, and get your books signed.
ABOUT THE BOOK, AUTHOR, & MODERATOR
BIBLIOPHOBIA
Books can seduce you. They can, Sarah Chihaya believes, annihilate, reveal, and provoke you. And anyone incurably obsessed with books understands this kind of unsettling literary encounter. Sarah calls books that have this effect “Life Ruiners.”
Her Life Ruiner, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, became a talisman for her in high school when its electrifying treatment of race exposed Sarah’s deepest feelings about being Japanese American in a predominantly white suburb of Cleveland. But Sarah had always lived through her books, seeking escape, self-definition, and rules for living. She built her life around reading, wrote criticism, and taught literature at an Ivy League University. Then she was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown, and the world became an unreadable blank page. In the aftermath, she was faced with a question. Could we ever truly rewrite the stories that govern our lives?
Bibliophobia is an alternately searing and darkly humorous story of breakdown and survival told through books. Delving into texts such as Anne of Green Gables, Possession, A Tale for the Time Being, and The Last Samurai, Sarah interrogates her cultural identity, her relationship with depression, and the intoxicating, sometimes painful, ways books push back on those who love them.
AUTHOR SARAH CHIHAYA
Sarah Chihaya is a book critic, essayist, and editor. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, New York magazine, The Atlantic, and The Yale Review, among other places, and she is the co-author of The Ferrante Letters: An Experiment in Collective Criticism. She has taught at Princeton University, New York University, and UC Berkeley. She is currently a contributing editor at Los Angeles Review of Books and lives in Brooklyn.
MODERATOR AMAN GARCHA
Aman Garcha is an associate professor of English at The Ohio State University and a member of the Thurber House Board of Trustees. He specializes in nineteenth-century British literature, the theory and history of the novel, and literary theory. He is the author of From Sketch to Novel: The Development of Victorian Fiction, as well as numerous essays and reviews. Aman regularly serves as a faculty member for the Dickens Project at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has won the Department of English's award for Graduate Professor of the Year three times.
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‣ Main Event at Thurber Center | 7:00-8:00 pm
Thurber Center (91 Jefferson Ave., Columbus, OH 43215)
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the program! You will have the opportunity to ask the author questions at the end of the event and get your book signed.
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‣ General Admission | $21
This ticket includes individual admission to the event.
Some walk-in tickets will also be available at the event (space permitting). However, we strongly encourage you to register in advance.
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This event will be held at Thurber Center (91 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, OH 43215).
Parking on Jefferson Avenue: Free, easy street parking is available all along the Jefferson Avenue oval. Note: only the spots along the one-way oval are free; the spots along the two-way ends of Jefferson Avenue (near Broad Street and Long Street) are not free.
Parking off N. 11th Street (behind Thurber House): Free visitor parking is available in the small lot directly behind Thurber House, accessible off N. 11th Street and located here. There is no time limit as long as you are visiting Thurber House. All other parking lots do not belong to Thurber House and you may be towed.
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The first floor of Thurber Center is handicap/wheelchair accessible, including the first floor restrooms.
How to reach the wheelchair ramp:
If you park on Jefferson Avenue: There is a slight curb (some wheelchairs can navigate this). The closest “ramp” cut is the entrance to the large parking lot on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Long Street (here). Follow the sidewalk through the Thurber Center front gate. Take the sidewalk around the porch on the right side of the building. The entrance to the wheelchair ramp will appear on your left, past the porch.
If you park in the Thurber House rear parking lot: Follow the sidewalk between the handicap parking signs (here). The sidewalk will take you around the north side of our multipurpose building, Thurber Center. The ramp will appear on your right and leads up to the front porch.
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For any questions that are not answered here, please email Jess Cox at jcox@thurberhouse.org or call 614-412-5955.
‣ How will I receive my tickets? You will receive an email order confirmation containing your ticket(s). You can print or show your ticket(s) on your phone. If you are unable to do so, we will manually check you in.
‣ Can I order tickets by phone? Yes, although online orders are encouraged. To order by phone, call 614-412-5955.
‣ Will there be a bathroom? Yes, bathrooms will be available.
‣ What’s your refund policy? All registrations are final and non-refundable. However, you can give your spot to a friend, family member, colleague, etc. if you cannot attend or in some cases you can apply your purchase as credit toward another program. Contact us to transfer a registration.
‣ What is the Columbus ticket fee? The total ticket price includes the Columbus Arts and Culture Fee as required by the City of Columbus. The Arts and Culture Fee provides public funds to support artists and arts/cultural organizations like Thurber House that educate and engage audiences of all ages. Click here for more information.
‣ Why are there processing fees? Purchases are subject to credit/debit card processing fees that help cover Thurber House's use of the registration platform. To pay by cash or check, please email thurberhouse@thurberhouse.org or call 614-464-1032.
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Disclaimer: Views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by event and program speakers in all mediums are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Thurber House, its affiliates, or its staff/board.