At Benaroya Hall — Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall
In Person & Online
It never stops being a reminder to me that as much as I might think I’m scribbling away alone, when the book does reach people and find a reader, when it really connects with someone sitting alone on the subway or in their house, it’s a real connection.
— Charles Yu
Fresh and beautiful… Interior Chinatown represents yet another stellar destination in the journey of a sui generis author of seemingly limitless skill and ambition.
— The New York Times Book Review
What Yu does very well–it is a long list, but this may be its most notable entry–is to create strange and disturbingly normal alternate realities. As readers, we are the better for Yu’s astonishing mix of wild imagination and meticulous restraint.
— The Los Angeles Review of Books
It never stops being a reminder to me that as much as I might think I’m scribbling away alone, when the book does reach people and find a reader, when it really connects with someone sitting alone on the subway or in their house, it’s a real connection.
— Charles Yu
Fresh and beautiful… Interior Chinatown represents yet another stellar destination in the journey of a sui generis author of seemingly limitless skill and ambition.
— The New York Times Book Review
Although this event has passed, you can still purchase tickets now through Tuesday, February 22, at 7:30 p.m. (PT). The event will be viewable until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, February 22.
Charles Yu is the infinitely inventive writer on HBO’s Westworld and the author of four books, including his latest, Interior Chinatown, winner of the 2020 National Book Award.
Interior Chinatown is a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
Q&A with Shawn Wong.
In Interior Chinatown, Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?
After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.
Charles Yu is also the author of the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (2010), and the short story collections Third Class Superhero (2006) and Sorry Please Thank You (2012). Yu has received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award, been nominated for two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on the HBO series Westworld, and has also written for shows on FX, AMC, Facebook Watch, and Adult Swim. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in a number of publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, Time and Ploughshares.
Shawn Wong, our Q&A moderator for the evening, is the Byron and Alice Lockwood Professor in the Humanities at the University of Washington, where he teaches Asian American literature in the Department of English and screenwriting in the Department of Cinema & Media Studies. Wong is the author of the novels Homebase (1979) and American Knees (1995), the latter of which was adapted into the feature film, Americanese (2006), directed by Eric Byler. He is the editor of numerous anthologies, including the landmark Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers. Learn more.
Video
Charles Yu explains the plot of Interior Chinatown and airs his frustrations with Asian stereotypes in Hollywood.
Charles Yu accepts the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction.
Charles Yu makes an appearance on Writers on Writing.
Charles Yu explains the plot of Interior Chinatown and airs his frustrations with Asian stereotypes in Hollywood.
Charles Yu accepts the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction.
Event Details
Benaroya Hall — Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall
Seattle Arts & Lectures requires attendees to provide proof of vaccination for our in-person events this season. See our FAQ for details. Masks are required for all attendees, regardless of vaccination status. Likewise, our staff and volunteers will be vaccinated and masked.
These policies are subject to revision as health and safety guidelines change. You will receive a pre-event email two days prior to each event to confirm our most up-to-date policies.
Can't find your tickets? Need access to the digital event?
All tickets have been emailed for Yu’s event, so be sure to check your inbox for an email from boxoffice@lectures.org. Call us at 206-621-2230 x10 if you can’t find them.
For in-person attendance: Your e-tickets come attached in a PDF with your ticket order confirmation email. Present on your mobile device or bring your printed ticket to the venue the night of the event. Check your pre-event email for details on COVID safety precautions.
For online attendance: Your e-tickets, which come attached in a PDF with your ticket order confirmation email, contain your digital access instructions. The night of your event, return to lectures.org/event/charles-yu and enter the password where prompted. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and will be available for viewing for a week after the event.
SAL will also send an email the day of the event, containing the same information. If you have opted out of receiving SAL emails, you will miss this important information—please email us at boxoffice@lectures.org and we will assist you.
Have a question for the speaker?
Want to ask Charles Yu something? Send your question to SAL at sal@lectures.org—it might be asked onstage!
Books
Our partner bookstore will have copies of Yu’s work available for purchase at their table in the lobby and on their website.
Patrons & Grand Patrons, you're invited to Happy Hour!
Patron & Grand Patron seating includes a pre-event happy hour, as is possible due to COVID-19 restrictions. Check your pre-event email for details.
Transportation & Parking
This event will be held in the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall. The Recital Hall is located on the upper level of Benaroya Hall, up the stairs to the left side of the Box Office. Benaroya Hall is located at 200 University Street, directly across Second Avenue from the Seattle Art Museum.
By Car
From Southbound I-5 Take the Union Street exit (#165B). Continue onto Union Street and proceed approximately five blocks to Second Avenue. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
From Northbound I-5 Exit left onto Seneca Street (exit #165). Proceed two blocks and turn right onto Fourth Avenue. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Union Street. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
From Northbound Highway 99 (Aurora Avenue) Take the Seneca Street exit and move into the left lane. Turn left onto First Avenue and proceed one block. Take the next right (at the Hammering Man sculpture) onto University Street. Continue up the hill two blocks to Third Avenue. Turn left onto Third Avenue. Continue to the next block and turn left onto Union Street. Make the next left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
From Southbound Highway 99 (Aurora Avenue) Take the Denny Way/Downtown exit. Keep right and cross over Denny Way onto Wall Street. Proceed approximately five blocks and turn left onto Second Avenue. Continue south on Second Avenue approximately eight blocks. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
By Public Transit (Bus & Light Rail)
Benaroya Hall is served by numerous bus routes. Digital reader boards along Third Avenue display real-time bus arrival information. For details and trip planning tools, call Metro Rider Information at 206.553.3000 (voice) or 206.684.1739 (TDD), or visit Metro online. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, served by light rail, has a stop just below the Hall (Symphony Station).
Parking
The 430-car underground garage at Benaroya Hall provides direct access from the enclosed parking area into the Hall via elevators leading to The Boeing Company Gallery. Enter the garage on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street. Maximum vehicle height is 6’8″. Blink charging stations are available for electric vehicles. Visit the Benaroya Hall website for event pricing.
Parking is also available at:
The Cobb Building (enter on University Street between Third and Fourth Avenues).
The Russell Investments Center (enter on Union Street between First and Second Avenues).
There are many other garages within a one-block radius of Benaroya Hall, along with numerous on-street parking options.
Accessibility
Open Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where a captioning screen displaying the words that are spoken or sung is placed on stage. This option is present at every event at Benaroya Hall in our 2021/22 Season.
Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video during an online event. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.
Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are devices that people with hearing loss use in conjunction with their hearing device (hearing aids or cochlear implants). Benaroya Hall has an infrared hearing system, which transmits sound by light beams. Headsets are available in The Boeing Company Gallery coat check and the Head Usher stations in bothlobbies.
Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals for both in-person and online events. To make a request for interpretation, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Sign Language Interpretation” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process and we will contact you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.
Wheelchair Accessible Seating and Accessible Restrooms are available in all sections at our venues, and our venues are fully accessible to ticket holders with physical mobility concerns. Among other features, Benaroya Hall has designated parking spaces adjacent to elevators in their parking garage. Elevators with Braille signage go to all levels within the Hall. To reserve seating for a specific mobility concern, you may select “Wheelchair Accessible or Alternative Seating Options” during ticket checkout, and we will contact you to confirm details. For more details on their accessibility features, click here.
Guide and service dogs are welcome.
Gender neutral restrooms are available.
We are pleased to offer these accessibility services at our venues, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at boxoffice@lectures.org, or Monday-Friday from 10:00am – 5:00pm at 206.621.2230×10.
For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility. If you would like to make accessibility arrangements you do not see listed here, please contact our box office or select “Other Accommodations” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will contact you to confirm details.
