Virtual Event: Linda Rui Feng and Meng Jin with The Ruby

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Presented by The Ruby
Join us Tuesday, May 11 at 6pm PT when Linda Rui Feng is joined by Meng Jin to discuss her debut novel, Swimming Back to Trout River!
If you would like a signed copy of this book, write “signed” in your order comment.

About this Event

[This is a Virtual Ruby event. Nonmembers are welcome to join; please donate if you are able! This event will take place over Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82204356202 ]

In partnership with Green Apple Books, join us in celebrating the launch of Linda Rui Feng’s debut novel, Swimming Back to Trout River, a Most-Anticipated selection from Electric Literature, The Millions, and Paperback Paris, and hailed by award-winning author Garth Greenwall as “gorgeously orchestrated” and possessing “astonishing emotional force.” Linda will be in conversation with our very own Meng Jin, author of Little Gods.

Support the author and beloved SF indie bookstore, Green Apple Books by purchasing a signed copy of the book here (just indicate you’d like a signed copy in the “order comments” section)!

About Swimming Back to Trout River

How many times in life can we start over without losing ourselves?
In the summer of 1986 in a small Chinese village, ten-year-old Junie receives a momentous letter from her parents, who had left for America years ago: her father promises to return home and collect her by her twelfth birthday. But Junie’s life exists in the idyllic countryside with the beloved grandparents who raised her. Junie’s growing determination to stay put with her grandparents threatens to derail her family’s shared future.

What Junie doesn’t know is that her parents, Momo and Cassia, are newly estranged from one another in their adopted country, each holding close private tragedies and histories from the tumultuous years of their youth during China’s Cultural Revolution. While Momo grapples with his deferred musical ambitions and dreams for Junie’s future in America, Cassia finally begins to wrestle with a shocking act of brutality from years ago. In order for Momo to fulfill his promise, he must make one last desperate attempt to reunite all three members of the family before Junie’s birthday—even if it means bringing painful family secrets to light.

Swimming Back to Trout River weaves together the stories of Junie, Momo, and Cassia while depicting their heartbreak and resilience, tenderly revealing the hope, compromises, and abiding ingenuity that make up the lives of immigrants.

About Linda Rui Feng

Born in Shanghai, Linda Rui Feng has lived in San Francisco, New York, and Toronto. She is a graduate of Harvard and Columbia Universities and is currently a professor of Chinese cultural history at the University of Toronto. She has been twice awarded a MacDowell Fellowship for her fiction, and her prose and poetry have appeared in journals such as The Fiddlehead, Kenyon Review Online, Santa Monica Review, and Washington Square Review. Swimming Back to Trout River is her first novel. Visit LindaRuiFeng.com to learn more.

About Meng Jin

Meng Jin was born in Shanghai and currently lives in San Francisco. She is a Kundiman Fellow and graduate of the Hunter College MFA. Her novel, Little Gods, was released to critical acclaim in 2020. See more at www.mengj.in

About The Virtual Ruby

*While we shelter in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, The Ruby’s physical location will be closed. As a collective, we’ll continue to gather online for virtual workshops, events, and discussions. All are welcome to join us for these events. * For those who can afford it and would like to support The Ruby during this uncertain time, we are offering 3 tiers of virtual membership: $5/week, $15/week, and $25/week. (Though we have some money in our emergency savings account to get us through the next little while, we’re pretty nervous about the future, and how long this might go on for.) Please help only if it’s feasible for you. If you’re in a tough time financially right now, we absolutely get it. Please, take care of yourself and stay connected to this community so we can help.

Here are the tiers of virtual membership (use these links to sign up):
$5/week – https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/aRsJyABygL4FvvEJT
$15/week – https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/o56ggrnNNx9rzn6AA
$25/week – https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/q37HfmWSQMoLzPt4p
Want to make a one-time donation of more or less? We can still accept donations through last year’s GoFundMe. Link is here.
Our Virtual Ruby calendar will be updated as events are added.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.