Frances Hwang at IU South Bend

Frances Hwang, author of Transparency will be reading at IU South bend. Her story collection, Transparency (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown & Company, 2007), received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and a PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Hwang teaches at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

Location: IU South Bend on the 3^rd floor “Bridge” of Wiekamp Hall.

When: Monday, Nov. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

*This event is free and open to the public. There will be light refreshments and a book-signing.

“All the grown-ups burst out laughing, and then my aunt turned to look at me. ‘So you think I’m not as pretty?’ she said. My fingers trailed along the sofa as I moved away from her. ‘You think your mom is prettier than me, hey?’ All at once, she lunged, squeezing me tight. When she suctioned my face with kisses, I could feel the hot steam of her emotion. She was a tyrant in that way, her passions swirled messily together, making me afraid. To love and to hate was the same, and even the dog was scared of her.”

–From Transparency “Giving a Clock”

When I'm Alone

I am

Surrounded

By sharp objects

I am alone

I struggle

For comfort

Should I play

A game

Or read

Maybe lie down

Or should I dig

Through the old

To find gold

I want

Invisible hammers

To strike strings

And save me

From this silence

I want to live

In a microcosmic

Village

With polar bear

And Penguins

And baby tiger cubs

And wolf pups

I want all

Of the animals

If I cannot

Have them

I will

Create them

In my mind

And I will

Dream of a garden

And surround

Myself

With memories

Materia

Magnetite

Sleeping Bear

When the storm rolls in,

I move quickly

Over jagged rocks and sand.

Across the great wild back

Of the sleeping bear.

I follow tracks and shapes in clouds.

I walk under a canopy-sky

Of rain and insects.

In the ghost tree valley;

Shadows climb in the distance.

There are two ways to travel:

In the darkness,

And in the light.

And I chase patches of sky

On a stormy sleeping bear night.

Breaking Glass

Starin’ at the Moon like a Common Loon

The giant panda shines on the surface of the lake

The pufferfish smears red paint on the canvas of the sky

The porcupine understands why some stars die

And why some stars live forever

The wolf loves the wild turkey kisses of the moonlight

The lionfish lives in a bowl full of nuts

And the clownfish resent statements like the later

“you can’t kid a kidder”

The giant clam is the loudest of them all

Swim

Little baby swim

Swim little

Baby

Brine shrimp

Penguins are decent animals

Perhaps I’m a decent person

Orion, make me feel like a polar bear again

I can breathe better in icy water

And in the mountains

Snow leopards brush against my face

Cutting a path in the brilliant white

I float on a dream pillow

So that I don’t have to swim for my life

It’s a religious boxing match with the champions of science

I prefer to ignore it (the fighting)

It makes the other animals leave

I speak with the body

And attack with the soul

The shadows make me feel silly

I don’t need these jaws

Or these claws to communicate

Animals know how to find inspiration elsewhere