Critics' Picks Oct 4, 2008
Modeled on the 1930s WPA American Guide series, this exercise in new federalism features both surprising choices (David Rakoff on Utah, Ha Jin on Georgia) and inspired ones (Tony Horwitz on Virginia, cartoonist Alison Bechdel on Vermont). Some of the essays -- including Jim Lewis' brief fling with Kansas and Craig Taylor's beautifully reported take on Delaware -- are among the finest you'll read all year. (Salon)
Ha Jin Wants to Visit China Jul 27, 2008
HONG KONG -- On a trip that's put him the closest to his homeland in 23 years, Chinese-American author Ha Jin says he wants to visit China but expressed frustration with censorship of his books ... Ha Jin, whose real name is Jin Xuefei, went to the United States in 1985 to pursue a doctorate in English and decided not to return after the Chinese military's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. (Newsmax)
A really Coolio cap Mar 31, 2008
Past recipients of the award include Edward P. Jones, Dagoberto Gilb, Susan Power, Chang-Rae Lee, Ha Jin, Charlotte Bacon, Rosina Lippi, and Jhumpa Lahiri. Here and there. (Boston Globe)
'Things Fall Apart' still teaching lessons Feb 20, 2008
Countless others have cited Achebe, from Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, who once called "Things Fall Apart," a "major education" for me, to Ha Jin, a Chinese-American novelist. Achebe himself recalls some letters he received about a decade ago from students at a women's college in South Korea. (CNN -- Showbiz)
The Neustadt Prize for Literature Feb 19, 2008
To be selected for the Neustadt jury is an honor in and of itself; revered writers like Ha Jin (2000), J. M. Coetzee (1994), Susan Sontag (1988), and Joseph Brodsky (1978) have been past jurors. Each juror submits the name of one author for consideration six months before the group meets. (Suite101.com)
Chinese alumni pledge $1mln to U.S. school Jan 21, 2008
BU has a student exchange program with Shanghai's Fudan University, and counts Ha Jin, a Chinese author writing in English, as one of its close to 4,000 faculty members. The latest boost to BU's $946-million endowment comes in a year when 200,000 Chinese are expected to travel abroad for studies. (Xinhuanet, China)
Find Timbaland at the library Jan 14, 2008
Mon Jan 14, 2008, 06:48 AM EST. Library closed for MLK Day. (Somerville Journal, MA)
New & Recommended Dec 30, 2007
A Free LifeBy Ha Jin. In this generous, leisurely tale, Jin explores a Chinese immigrant's first 12 years in America (Pantheon, $26). (Boston Globe)
Book buzz: 'Eat, Pray, Love' rules the holidays Dec 27, 2007
Also: Away by Amy Bloom, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and A Free Life by Ha Jin. TOP 150. (USA Today)
Study finds White House manipulation on climate science Dec 12, 2007
Novelist Ha Jin achieves a realistic portrait of a Chinese immigrant's search for purpose in the land of plenty. SCI / TECH. (Christian Science Monitor)
The high cost of living 'A Free Life' Dec 11, 2007
A Free Life By Ha Jin Pantheon 672 pp ... Author: Ha Jin, an award-winning novelist, teaches English at Boston University ... Novelist Ha Jin achieves a realistic portrait of a Chinese immigrant's search for purpose in the land of plenty. (Christian Science Monitor)
Take a peek inside Ha Jin's A Free Life' Dec 6, 2007
By Ha Jin Chapter One ... Excerpted from A Free Life by Ha Jin Copyright. (USA Today -- Life)
Coming to America Dec 4, 2007
Ha Jin (author of the National Book Award-winning "Waiting") reads today from his new novel, "A Free Life," which follows the journey of members of a Chinese family who flee their country in the wake of the Tiananmen Square incident and try to start over in America. The series of events is based in some part on Jin's own experience as an immigrant studying here during the same period. (Boston Globe)
San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers Dec. 2 / Dec 3, 2007
A FREE LIFE, Ha Jin (Pantheon; 672 pages; $26): An immigrant family severs its ties with China after the Tiananmen Square massacre and seeks a better life in America. This week. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Is that Hillary? Nov 30, 2007
The impressive literary lineup includes Leslie Epstein, David Ferry, Allegra Goodman, Ha Jin, Robert Pinsky, Derek Walcott, and Rosanna Warren. Error on Romney Maybe if he'd spent a little more time here, former governor Mitt Romney wouldn't have made such an egregious Red Sox-related gaffe during the Republican presidential debate the other night. (Boston Globe)
Campus calendar Nov 29, 2007
Monday Boston University Faculty Reading The lineup for BU's annual faculty event reads like a who's who of the Boston literary community: former US poet laureate Robert Pinsky, Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott, National Book Award winner Ha Jin, poet David Ferry, novelist Allegra Goodman, poet and translator Rosanna Warren, writing program alum Tom Yuill, and novelist and program director Leslie Epstein. 7:30 p.m. Free. (Boston Globe)
Personal Tech: Holiday Guide 2007 Nov 29, 2007
Rob Pegoraro Washington Post Personal Technology Columnist Thursday, November 29, 2007; 2:00 PM. Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. (Washington Post -- Technology)
What to buy the reader who has read everything Nov 28, 2007
This fall was rich with novels worthy of gift-giving: Tom Perrotta s The Abstinence Teacher, Amy Bloom s Away, Ken Follett s World Without End, Richard Russo s Bridge of Sighs and Ha Jin s The Free Life are all excellent suggestions. My favorite reading experience this year had to be An Arsonist s Guide to Writers Homes in New England by Brock Clarke (Algonquin, $23. (Newton Tab, MA)
Ha Jin captures nuances of immigrant experience in 'A Free Life' Nov 25, 2007
Ha Jin captures nuances of immigrant experience in 'A Free Life ... In his new novel, "A Free Life" (Pantheon Books, 26), Ha Jin artfully captures this nuanced picture in telling the story of Nan Wu, a Chinese immigrant, and his wife Pingping and son Taotao. (North County Times)
'A Free Life': Ha Jin rehashes the immigrant experience Nov 24, 2007
A Free Life': Ha Jin rehashes the immigrant experience - International Herald Tribune. Pantheon Books, via The Associated Press Ha Jin's newest novel, "A Free Life," is his first set in the United States ... A Free Life': Ha Jin rehashes the immigrant experience. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Review: Ha Jin's 'A Free Life' Nov 15, 2007
Review: Ha Jin's 'A Free Life ... Review: Ha Jin's 'A Free Life ... In an interview last year, Ha Jin, who has won the National Book Award and two PEN/Faulkner awards, expressed some concern about how his new novel would be received. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Free, not always easy Nov 12, 2007
In Ha Jin's new novel, a Chinese immigrant finds a brave, baffling new world. Ha Jin, a professor of English at Boston University and the author of the novels "The Crazed," "War Trash," and "Waiting," winner of the National Book Award ... A Free LifeBy Ha JinPantheon, 660 pp. (Boston Globe)
REQUIRED READING Oct 28, 2007
Ha Jin was studying at Brandeis University when the Tiananmen massacre happened ... Having previously set his work in China, this time Ha Jin visits 1990s America, where a Chinese grad student and budding poet drops out after Tiananmen and opens a restaurant to support the wife he wants to leave and their young child. (New York Post -- Opinions)
Read Full AFP Report Oct 23, 2007
Like many other emigre authors who write in a foreign tongue -- Dai Sijie in French or Ha Jin in English -- Shan Sa has written mostly in French, apart from her first book of poems when she was 10 years old. Her books include "The Girl Who Played Go," which won an award in France and has been translated into English but remains unpublished in Chinese. (News on Japan, Japan)
Authors fest unites generations and genres Oct 13, 2007
With Chaim Rosenberg, author of "Goods for Sale. 7:30 p.m. Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center, 246 Market St., Lowell. Thursday, Oct. 25: An evening with Eric Jay Dolin, author of "Leviathan: A History of Whaling in America," 7:30 p.m., Concord Museum, 200 Lexington Road, Concord. Friday, Oct. 26: An Evening with Ha Jin, author of "A Free Life. " 7 p.m. Samuel Pollard Library, 401 Merrimack St., Lowell. Saturday, Oct. 27: Cat in the Hat's 50th Birthday Party, a free family party. 2... (Wilmington Advocate, MA)
Picking favorites for the fall Sep 4, 2007
Among New England writers, Boston University professor Ha Jin has a novel called "A Free Life" (October), which sounds autobiographical. It concerns a Chinese student at Brandeis, shocked by the Tiananmen Square massacre, who decides to make his life in America. (Boston Globe)
The New Titles Sep 2, 2007
"A Free Life," Ha Jin (Pantheon); the author of "Waiting" returns with a story of Chinese immigrants in the United States. "Pontoon," Garrison Keillor (Viking); more adventures from Lake Wobegon. (CBS News)
How did we miss these? Sep 2, 2007
In 1992, I was in a creative writing programme with Ha Jin and Jhumpa Lahiri - wonderful writers, both, but the pick of our bunch, in my opinion, was Marshall Klimasewiski, a consummate stylist, who last year published his first novel, The Cottagers. A haunting, psychological study, in the vein of early McEwan or Ruth Rendell, it slipped under the radar in the US, perhaps because of its settings in Canada and India, most likely because it defies easy categorisation (a Chekhovian character study... (Guardian Unlimited)
Check out the fall books preview Aug 27, 2007
Plus there are new novels from Stewart O'Nan and Ha Jin, and a volume of the collected poetry of Philip Whalen ... Michael Rothenberg edits The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen (Wesleyan University Press); John Ashbery's Notes From the Air: Selected Later Poems (Ecco/HarperCollins); and Ha Jin's novel A Free Life (Pantheon). (San Francisco Chronicle)
Shanghai noir Jul 12, 2007
Perhaps the more famous of the two goes by the name of Ha Jin, though he works in the literary-fiction genre, not detective novels ... Both were in the US as visiting scholars - Ha Jin at Brandeis University in Ohio and Qiu at Washington University in St Louis - when the 1989 Tiananmen massacre occurred in Beijing ... "Ha Jin is a friend of mine," Qiu told Asia Times Online in an e-mail interview. (Asia Times Online)
Has the novel been murdered by the mob? Jul 6, 2007
In the ranks of American novelists today, there are writers with plenty of lively ideas, from Denis Johnson to Ha Jin, all of whom have major autumn publications on the way. The problem is that the audience just might not be there. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
Novel and simple transformation algorithm for combining microarray data sets Jun 25, 2007
BMC Bioinformatics 2007, 8:218 doi:10. 1186/1471-2105-8-218. (BioMed Central)
Opera finds its roots in the heartland Mar 31, 2007
Tan turned to poet, novelist and short story writer Ha Jin, an eloquent National Book Award winner. But he gave him a clunky plot and got a stilted libretto in return. (Los Angeles Times)
Profs in print Feb 11, 2007
Epstein predicted that Tudish, whose novel "American Cream " is due in August, will join Arthur Golden, Sue Miller, and Ha Jin as a famous graduate of the BU program. Jin, now a faculty member, has a novel -- his first set in America -- due out this year. (Boston Globe)
Quick reads, deep thoughts, lasting enjoyment Feb 7, 2007
"New Sudden Fiction" is Robert Shapard and James Thomas's fourth anthology of short-short stories, featuring works from an international cast of writers including Tobias Wolff, Ha Jin, Nadine Gordimer, and Jorge Luis Arzola. Both teachers of literature and creative writing , Shapard and Thomas kicked around various names -- "experimental fictions," "prose poems," even "enigmas" -- to describe these tiny tales. (Boston Globe -- Living)
'The First Emperor,' and a flutter of Chinese fans in New York Feb 7, 2007
It featured a creative team that was largely Chinese, including the renowned filmmaker Zhang Yimou as director and the National Book Award-winning author Ha Jin as co-librettist with Tan. It had a Chinese story line an imagined incident in the life of China's historic first emperor, Qin Shi Huang and a star-studded cast, with the tenor Plcido Domingo in the title role. (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Professors read poetry, prose to spur creativity Feb 1, 2007
The entire creative writing faculty -- David Ferry, Jennifer Haigh, Ha Jin, Louise Glck and Robert Pinsky -- read poetry and novel excerpts from several works, including their own. Pinsky, a former Poet Laureate, read two of his poems, "Keyboard" and "The Green Piano," which he said refers to a piano he loved when he was a child. (Boston University Daily Free Press, MA)
On the red carpet Jan 29, 2007
Admirable faculty Novelists Ha Jin and Jennifer Haigh and poets Robert Pinsky and Louise Gl ck are participants in the annual faculty reading at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Boston University, 595 Commonwealth Ave.. Coming out. (Boston Globe)
A show that belongs on screen Jan 15, 2007
Masque-like scenes competed with each other for bombast, and the verbose English made it all too obvious that Tan and his co-librettist Ha Jin were not working in their first language. Tan began to sound like a tourist gathering souvenirs, from Stravinsky, Messiaen, and even Aaron Copland. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
'The First Emperor' Jan 15, 2007
The libretto, written by the composer and Chinese-born American novelist Ha Jin, is not a creature of the stage. Rather than trip off the tongue, it falls with the sound of plopping platitudes. (Newsday -- Entertainment)
My must sees for 2007 Jan 7, 2007
Finally, in New York, the Metropolitan Opera s The First Emperor unites the novelist Ha Jin and the composer Tan Dun (listen to the company s performances on Sirius internet radio). ALEX JAMES, musician, farmer and cheese-maker. (The Sunday Times)
Alex Ross on Tan Dun Jan 1, 2007
The libretto, by the expatriate novelist Ha Jin and the composer, is set in the third century B.C., during the reign of Qin Shihuang. Qin is unifying China, standardizing the culture, and initiating the construction of the Great Wall. (New Yorker)
East meets West| Jan 1, 2007
The libretto, which Tan co-wrote with Boston-based Chinese writer Ha Jin, is described as a "tale of friendship, love and betrayal" and recounts the life of Qin Shi Huang, who unified China and began to build the Great Wall. Qin's quest to find a national anthem is studded with tales of love, betrayal, infidelity, jealousy and, perhaps inevitably, ritualistic death. (iAfrica.com)
