Taipei Culture Center in New York and PEN America proudly invite renowned Taiwanese writer Kevin Chen (陳思宏) to talk about his novel "Ghost Town (鬼地方)" at the 2023 PEN World Voices Festival, which will take place from May 10 to 13.
The event segment "Translation Slam" on May 12 (from 6pm ET) invites authors, translators, and audience members to engage in a lively debate on how each version meets new creative challenges. This event will feature previously unpublished texts in Chinese and Spanish written by Kevin Chen and Maria Ampuero, and translations by Lin King, Stacy Mosher, Samantha Schnee, and D. P. Snyder. Another segment "Spirited Away–Haunted Novels" on May 12 (from 9pm ET) explores the invisible forces, specters, and haunting memories that shape the fictional narratives of acclaimed writers Kevin Chen (Ghost Town), Namwali Serpell (The Furrows), Joseph Han (Nuclear Family), and Samanta Schweblin (Seven Empty Houses).
"Ghost Town" has received critical acclaim in organizations such as The New York Times and Booklist. The novel was also selected by Library Journal in the category of Best of World Literature 2022, and it was longlisted for the 2023 PEN Translation Prize.
Kevin Chen was born in 1976 in the township of Yongjing (永靖), which is located in the central Taiwanese county of Changhua. He published his first short story, “The Generation of Blossoming Nails (指甲長花的世代),” at the age of 26, and since then, he has continued to publish books, all of which have been recognized with a number of literary awards. From 2019 through 2022, Chen published the long-form novels Ghost Town (鬼地方), Florida Metamorphosis (佛羅里達變形記), and Die guten Menschen von oben (樓上的好人).