Babel-On with R.F. Kuang
Tuesday, May 19 at 7 PM CST
R.F. Kuang’s genre-bending fiction broaches ordinarily serious topics from a satirical and fantastical perspective. Academic yet approachable, Kuang’s work combines history, magic, and classical literary tradition to render powerful critiques of academia, the publishing industry, and even contemporary popular culture.
Her most recent novel, Katabasis, follows two graduate students as they descend into hell after the death of their professor, and the screen rights options to the novel were sold to Amazon MGM Studios for an upcoming TV series before its publication. Kuang’s other bestselling titles include Yellowface, Babel, and The Poppy War trilogy, and she is the recipient of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction, and the American Book Award.
Kelly Jensen, anti-censorship advocate, Senior Editor at Book Riot, and writer who has compiled such anthologies as Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World and (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, will be joining Kuang in conversation.
Framed within the broader social and ecological changes of his time, the presentation culminates in sharing the meaning of a ‘land ethic”: Leopold’s enduring call for a moral and ethical relationship between people and the land.
Jennifer Sterling is a master educator and lifelong environmentalist with a career rooted in conservation and environmental ethics. She studied Environmental Education and Environmental Philosophy at The Ohio State University and began her work as a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest. After leading youth and family programs at Olbrich Botanical Gardens and spending over a decade as a public school teacher, she is now Programs Manager at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, where she creates programs that help people recognize their place in the natural community and their responsibility to care for the land.
The program is brought to you in partnership with 11 McHenry County Libraries (McHenry County Libraries United) and several nature and conservation organizations in our area, in honor of our shared Summer Reading Program: Plant a Seed, Read. There will be a cash bar/refreshments available starting at 6pm with theater doors opening at 6:45. Book sales, including Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac and others, will be made possible through Abalabix Bookstore of Crystal Lake, IL.