American writer and academic
Hua Hsu (born 1977)
[1] is an American writer and academic, based in
New York City . He is a professor of English at
Bard College and a staff writer at
The New Yorker . His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as well as public perceptions of diversity and
multiculturalism . He is the author of A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific . His second book,
Stay True: A Memoir , was published in September 2022.
Early life
A second-generation
Taiwanese American , Hsu was born in 1977 in
Champaign-Urbana ,
Illinois
[2] before moving to
Plano , then
Richardson, Texas .
[3] His family moved to southern California,
[3] then ultimately
Cupertino, California ,
[4] where his father was an engineer; his mother stayed at home with Hua.
[3] The family lived in Cupertino from about the time Hua was 9 to 18, though his father moved to Taiwan to pursue work and Hua often spent summers and other school vacations there.
[5]
Hsu attended college at the
University of California, Berkeley , where he studied
political science .
[3] He graduated in 1999.
[3] He next attended
Harvard University to study
Asian-American literature ,
[3] earning a PhD in the History of American Civilization in 2008.
[6]
Louis Menand advised his dissertation,
[7] titled Pacific Crossings: China, the United States, and the Transpacific Imagination .
[6]
Career
Hsu was a tenured
associate professor of English and director of
American Studies at
Vassar College
[8] until 2022, when he became professor of English at
Bard College .
[9] Since 2017, he has also been a staff writer at
The New Yorker .
[10] His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as well as public perceptions of diversity and
multiculturalism . Other research work and interests include studies of
literary history and
arts criticism .
[11]
Hsu has been a fellow at
New America , a
public policy
think tank and a contributor to
The New Yorker ,
The Atlantic ,
Slate , and
The Wire .
[12]
[13]
[14] His 2012 essay for Lucky Peach about suburban Chinatowns was nominated for a 2012
James Beard Award for food writing.
[15] He is a board member of the
Asian American Writers' Workshop .
[16] His book, A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific ,
[17] was published in June 2016 by
Harvard University Press .
[18] He was a 2016 National Fellow for the New America Foundation.
[19]
Hsu's second book, Stay True: A Memoir , about an important friendship he had while in college, was published by
Doubleday on September 27, 2022. It received a starred review in
Publishers Weekly .
[20] Jennifer Szalai of
The New York Times wrote, "Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of 'Stay True' sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout."
[21] The book was named one of the "10 Best Books of 2022" by
The New York Times
[22] and
The Washington Post .
[23] The book won the 2023
Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography
[24] and the 2022
National Book Critics Circle award in autobiography .
[25]
Personal life
Hsu lives in
Brooklyn .
[26] He is married with a son.
[3]
Bibliography
Books
Hsu, Hua (2016). A floating Chinaman : fantasy and failure across the Pacific . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP.
— (2022).
Stay true : a memoir . New York: Doubleday/Knopf/PRH.
Essays and reporting
Hsu, Hua (January–February 2009).
"The end of White America?" . U.S. The Atlantic .
— (April 18, 2012).
"All hail the chairmen : Jonathan Olivares's 'Taxonomy of Office Chairs' " . Los Angeles Review of Books .
— (September 5, 2012).
"Michael K. Williams reveals his Omar Mix" . Vulture .
— (December 13, 2012).
"Wokking the Suburbs" . Lucky Peach .
— (September 26, 2014).
"The Simpsons go to China" . Currency. The New Yorker .
[a]
— (October 16, 2014).
"Before gentrification, a city covered in graffiti" . Cultural Comment. The New Yorker .
[a]
— (February 22, 2016).
"A god dream : Kanye West unveils a new album, 'The Life of Pablo' " . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 92 (2): 66–68.
[b]
— (March 7, 2016).
"The struggle : Macklemore wrestles with his place in hip-hop" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 92 (4): 70–71.
[c]
— (July 25, 2016).
"Pale fire : is whiteness a privilege or a plight?" . The Critics. A Critic at Large. The New Yorker . 92 (22): 63–66.
[d]
— (September 21, 2016).
"The Critic Who Convinced Me That Criticism Could Be Art" . The New Yorker .
— (October 3, 2016).
"Bon Iver's new voice" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker .
— (January 4, 2017).
"Listening to George Michael in Taiwan" . Cultural Comment [web only]. The New Yorker .
— (April 24, 2017).
"Praise songs : Alice Coltrane in Sanskrit" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 93 (10): 98–99.
[e]
— (May 1, 2017).
"Legacy media : Kendrick Lamar's sense of debt to those who came before" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 93 (11): 74–75.
[f]
— (September 18, 2017).
"Rostam Batmanglij defines his musical identity" . Pop Music. The New Yorker .
— (December 4, 2017).
"Forward march : Bjõrk's visions of the future" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 93 (39): 62–64.
[g]
— (May 20, 2019).
"Machine yearning : Holly Herndon's search for a new art form for our tech obsessions" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 95 (13): 83–84.
[h]
— (December 9, 2019).
"Burial's Search for Fleeting Moments" . Pop Music. The New Yorker .
— (January 6, 2020).
"Exclude me in : in the seventes, a group of Asian–American writers decided it was their turn" . The Critics. Books. The New Yorker . 95 (43): 58–63.
[i]
— (September 21, 2020).
"The musical monk : rediscovering Beverly Glenn-Copeland's inward-looking sounds" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 96 (28): 59–60.
[j]
— (December 21, 2020).
"Whims : Paul McCartney's surprisingly playful pandemic album" . The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker . 96 (41): 80–81.
[k]
— (April 5, 2021).
"Game over : how athletes began telling a new story about sports" . The Critics. Podcast Dept. The New Yorker . 97 (7): 63–65.
[l]
— (August 22, 2022).
"My dad and Kurt Cobain : alternative culture and a fax machine bridged an ocean" . Personal History. The New Yorker . 98 (25): 24–29.
———————
Notes
^
a
b Available on website only.
^ Title in the online table of contents is "Kanye West realizes his dreams".
^ Online version is titled "Mackelmore, the hip-hop villain".
^ Online version is titled "White plight?".
^ Online version is titled "
Alice Coltrane ’s devotional music".
^ Online version is titled "Kendrick Lamar's holy spirit".
^ Online version is titled "Bjõrk's visions of an enchanted future".
^ Online version is titled "Electronic pop for the surveillance era".
^ Online version is titled "The Asian-American canon breakers".
^ Online version is titled "Beverly Glenn-Copeland's music for a future that never came".
^ Online version is titled "Paul McCartney's surprisingly playful pandemic album".
^ Online version is titled "The rise of the athlete podcaster".
See also
References
^ Spaeth, Ryu (September 20, 2022).
"Hua Hsu Is True to the Game" . Vulture . Retrieved September 20, 2022 .
^ Hsu, Hua (August 15, 2022).
"My Dad and Kurt Cobain" . The New Yorker . Retrieved August 20, 2022 .
^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
"Episode 29: Professor and New Yorker Writer Hua Hsu by Mary H.K. Choi" . Hey, Cool Job . March 16, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018 .
^
"Angry Reader of the Week: Hua Hsu" .
^ Hsu, Hua (June 18, 2012).
"How Rock Ballads Brought My Father's American Dream To Life" . NPR . Retrieved April 25, 2018 .
^
a
b
"Alumni Publications" . American Studies – The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University . Retrieved April 25, 2018 .
^ Mistry, Anupa (June 9, 2016).
"Yaa Gyasi And Hua Hsu Talk About Writing" . The Fader . Retrieved April 25, 2018 .
^
"Hua Hsu - English Department - Vassar College" . english.vassar.edu . Retrieved September 12, 2017 .
^ College, Bard.
"Hua Hsu" . www.bard.edu . Retrieved August 20, 2022 .
^
"Hua Hsu" . The New Yorker . Retrieved April 25, 2018 .
^
"Vassar Faculty and Staff" . Vassar English Department . Vassar College. Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
^
"Hua Hsu, New America Fellow" . New America . Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
^
"Authors: Hua Hsu" .
Slate .
^
"Author: Hua Hsu" .
The Atlantic .
^ Forbes, Paula (March 18, 2013).
"Here Are the 2013 James Beard Awards Finalists" . Eater . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .
^ Romano, Evan (March 13, 2017).
"Brooklyn 100 Influencer: Hua Hsu, The 'New Yorker' " . Brooklyn Magazine . Retrieved September 12, 2017 .
^ Nguyen, Viet Thanh (July 22, 2016).
"Reconsidering the Work of a Chinese Immigrant Writer of the 1930s" . The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 . Retrieved September 12, 2017 .
^
"Contributors: Hua Hsu" .
The New Yorker . Retrieved February 16, 2016 .
^
"Hua Hsu" . New America . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .
^
"Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu" . Publishers Weekly . May 19, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022 .
^ Szalai, Jennifer (September 29, 2022).
"A Formative Friendship Cut Short by Tragedy" . New York Times . Retrieved November 22, 2022 .
^
"The 10 Best Books of 2022" .
The New York Times . November 29, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022 .
^
"The 10 Best Books of 2022" .
The Washington Post . November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022 .
^
"2023 Pulitzer Prize Winners & Finalists" . The Pulitzer Prizes . May 8, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023 .
^ Varno, David (February 1, 2023).
"NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR PUBLISHING YEAR 2022" . National Book Critics Circle . Retrieved February 3, 2023 .
^
"The 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture 2017" . Brooklyn Magazine . March 13, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2017 .
External links