South and Southeast Asian Literature (IN-PERSON)

All Levels | In partnership with UW’s South and Southeast Asia Centers and Center for Global Studies, author Shobha Rao and professor Nazry Bahrawi will lead you on a boundary-crossing literary tour to explore the connections between South Asian and Southeast Asian literature. For writers, what effective methods can we learn from works that deftly tackle subjects like gender, immigration, identity, authoritarianism, and globalization? For readers, this class will introduce you to recent literature from these important world regions. Teachers will learn how to incorporate South and Southeast Asian literary materials into classroom curricula. All who appreciate diverse storytelling and global literature are welcome.

This class may be moved online for some or all sessions depending on the COVID-19 public health guidelines and Hugo House’s current in-person program policy. We are monitoring the situation daily. Hugo House prioritizes the health of students and staff. 

Read about our COVID policies here.

Shobha Rao

Shobha Rao is the author of the short story collection An Unrestored Woman, and the novel Girls Burn Brighter. She is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story “Kavitha and Mustafa” was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015. Girls Burn Brighter has been longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award. She lives in San Francisco.

Nazry Bahrawi

Nazry Bahrawi is an academic and translator from Singapore currently residing in Seattle. He teaches modules on Southeast Asian science and speculative fiction as well as racial narratives from the region at the University of Washington-Seattle, where he is an assistant professor. Nazry is the editor and translator of Singa-Pura-Pura, a short story anthology of Malay speculative fiction. He has translated Lost Nostalgia and Lorong Buang Kok, The Musical from Malay to English. He is an editor-at-large at Wasafiri magazine and the essay & research editor for the Journal of Practice, Research and Tangential Activities (PR&TA).