Scarsdale Adult School Catalog Spring/Summer 2025
Author Visit: Afabwaje Kurian, Before the Mango Ripens (2024)
In conversation with Anna Katsavos, Afabwaje Kurian discusses her debut novel, Before the Mango Ripens (2024). Longlisted for the Aspen Prize, Kurian’s work paints a nuanced portrait of life in a small Nigerian town in the aftermath of the Biafran War. This historical fiction set in the 1970s illustrates the hypocrisy and tensions between American Christian missionaries and the residents of Rabata as Nigeria teeters between post-colonial dependency and self-rule. Moving and bitingly humorous, the novel weaves together the characters' back stories and explores themes of faith, ambition, and betrayal in portraying a community at the precipice of change.
AFABWAJE KURIAN received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her short fiction has been published in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern , Callaloo , Crazyhorse (now swamp.pink ), The Bare Life Review , and Joyland Magazine . She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa, for the International Writing Program, and for The Writer’s Center, and received residencies and fellowships from Ucross, Vermont Studio Center, and Ragdale. Born in Jos, Nigeria, and raised in Maryland and Ohio, Kurian now divides her time between Washington, D.C., and the Midwest. ANNA KATSAVOS (see bio for “Author Visit: Elizabeth Harris, How to Sleep at Night (2025)”). Tuesday, May 6 • 10:00am-11:15am • Zoom • Course 13157 • $30
Author Visit: Karissa Chen, Homeseeking (2025) In conversation with Anna Katsavos, Karissa Chen will discuss her debut novel, Homeseeking (2025). This epic depicts the lives of separated lovers across sixty years as war, famine, and opportunity take them from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Taiwan, New York, and their eventual reunion in Los Angeles. It chronicles the story of the sentimental Haiwen from his present to his past while tracing forward-looking Suchi’s life from her childhood to the present. This Good Morning America Book Club pick examines the experiences of the Chinese diaspora through an intimate story of family, sacrifice, loyalty, and love that transcends distance and time.
KARISSA CHEN is a Fulbright fellow, Kundiman Fiction fellow, and a VONA/Voices fellow whose fiction and essays have appeared in the Atlantic , Eater , the Cut , NBC News THINK! , Longreads , PEN
America , Catapult , Gulf Coast , and Guernica , among others. She was awarded an artist fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as well as multiple writing residencies including at Millay Arts, where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others. She was formerly a senior fiction editor at the Rumpus and currently serves as the editor-in-chief at Hyphen magazine. She received an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan. ANNA KATSAVOS (see bio for “Author Visit: Elizabeth Harris, How to Sleep at Night (2025)”). Monday, May 12 • 11:00am-12:15pm • Zoom • Course 13158 • $30
www.ScarsdaleAdultSchool.org • (914) 723-2325
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