Virtual Book Club

In partnership with Young Auditorium as part of the 2021 NEA BIG READ Program, we will be reading "The Latehomecomer A Hmong Family Memoir" by Kao Kalia Yang.

Kao Kalia Yang is a Hmong-American author, filmmaker, public speaker, and natural storyteller. The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir (Coffee House Press, 2008) is the first memoir written by a Hmong-American to be published with national distribution. Driven to tell her family's story—and the story of the Hmong people—Yang wrote it as a "love letter" to her grandmother whose spirit held her family together through their imprisonment in Laos, their harrowing escape across the Mekong River and into a refugee camp in Thailand, their immigration to Minnesota when Yang was only six years old, and their transition to a hard life in America. "Yang has performed an important service in bringing readers the stories of a people whose history has been shamefully neglected," writes Kirkus. "Yang tells her family's story with grace; she narrates their struggles, beautifully weaving in Hmong folklore and culture. By the end of this moving, unforgettable book, when Yang describes the death of her beloved grandmother, readers will delight at how intimately they have become part of this formerly ... [unfamiliar] culture" ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).

What is the NEA Big Read?
A program of the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. Managed by Arts Midwest, this initiative offers grants to support innovative community reading programs designed around a single book.

How to participate in the virtual book club:

Books have been shipped to the registered participants. We have reached our capacity for the book club and are no longer taking registrations. 

If you have registered for the book club, please keep a list of the meetings below and an email will be sent with reminders and Webex information around March 10.

Book Club meetings held on Webex:

• Thursday, March 18, 7-8 p.m. – read chapters 1-7
• Thursday, April 1, 7-8 p.m. – read chapters 8-11
• Friday, April 9, 7-8 p.m. – optional author lecture, Live stream through Young Auditorium  Sign up here
• Thursday, April 15, 7-8 p.m. – read chapters 12-15, Final discussion of book and author lecture

Additional resources:

NEA Big Read – Whitewater Facebook page
The Hmong Institute