Twenty Years of Rolling the R’s & The White Boy Shuffle

The year was 1996. Two novelists of color publish stunning and provocative coming-of-age debuts. Through fiercely earnest characters navigating a landscape of burning dreams and neglect in a small 1970s Hawaiian community, R. Zamora Linmark’s Rolling the R’s threw new light on queer identity and the trauma of assimilation—and is now available in a new, updated edition from Kaya Press. Paul Beatty’s brilliant, satirical The White Boy Shuffle introduced us to an unforgettable protagonist—a young African American surfer in Los Angeles who reluctantly becomes a messiah for his community. Twenty years after the publication of their first novels, the two authors join each other in reflection, celebration, and conversation. Moderated by writer Jessica Hagedorn (Toxicology).

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Cosponsored by Kaya Press, the NYU Creative Writing Program, the Institute of African American Affairs at NYU, and the Filipino American Museum.