Ed. Note: The following is a news release courtesy of College of the Canyons. 

College of the Canyons officials are planning to host the community event “Meet Celeste Ng” featuring the New York Times bestselling author, Celeste Ng, next week.

The event is being held in conjunction with the college’s annual ‘Celebrating the Humanities’ program running throughout the fall semester.

At the ‘Meet Celeste Ng’ event audience members will be treated to a special presentation and live reading from Ng’s novel, “Everything I Never Told You.”

“Celeste Ng’s campus visit and live reading will provide a unique educational experience for students and community members alike,” said Adam Kaiserman, COC English professor and one of the event organizers.

“The event also represents the first time we have been able to host a ‘Book of the Year’ author on campus,” added Kaiserman, “Naturally, we are all very excited to hear her speak.”

In its review of “Everything I Never Told You” the Los Angeles Times refers to the novel as “an accomplished debut.”

The reviewer goes on to describe Ng’s complex, multigenerational novel as “heart wrenching” and “an engaging work that casts a powerful light on the secrets that have kept an American family together – and that finally end up tearing it apart.”

Additionally, the novel was Amazon’s No. 1 Best Book of 2014, a New York Times Notable Book, and included on more than a dozen ‘Best Book of the Year’ lists throughout the country.

“Everything I Never Told You” was also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and the Medici Book Club Prize.

The novel was a finalist for numerous other awards, including the Ohioana Award, the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.

The free community event “Meet Celeste Ng” will begin at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, on the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center main stage.

The afternoon will also feature an audience Q&A period and book signing. Copies of the novel are currently available in the COC bookstore, and will also be available for purchase at the event.

Event parking will be available in college lots 7 and 8, with single day-use permits available for purchase for $2 from one of the lot’s self-service kiosks.

For more information about the ‘Meet Celeste Ng’ event or the ongoing Celebrate the Humanities program please visit the website.

More About Celeste Ng

Ng grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio, among a family of scientists.

She attended Harvard University, and later received a Hopwood Award scholarship from the University of Michigan, where she went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts.

Her fiction and essays have also appeared in One Story, TriQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review (BLR) and Kenyon Review Online.

Additionally, Ng received a 2011 Pushcart Prize for her story “Girls, At Play,” which appeared in the fall 2010 issue of BLR.

She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.