Newsroom

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Writer, radio producer and multimedia artist Shawn Wen will read at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, in the Lab Theatre in Withycombe Hall on the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow.

Wen’s book, “A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause,” was published by Sarabande in 2017 and features a book-length essay about the mime Marcel Marceau. Wen’s writing has also appeared in journals such as Seneca Review, Iowa Review, The New Inquiry and White Review, as well as in the anthology “City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis.” 

Her radio work has appeared on “This American Life,” “Freakonomics Radio” and “Marketplace,” and she is a producer for the nonprofit, educational media production company “Youth Radio,” where she works with teenagers to produce news stories for local and national outlets. Her video work has appeared at the Museum of Modern Art, the Camden International Film Festival and the Carpenter Center at Harvard University.

Wen is a graduate of Brown University and the recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Ford Foundation Professional Journalism Training Fellowship and the Royce Fellowship. She was born in Beijing, China, raised in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, and currently resides in San Francisco. 

The reading is part of the 2017-2018 Visiting Writers Series, which brings nationally acclaimed writers to OSU. The series is sponsored by the MFA Program in Creative Writing at OSU, with support from the OSU Libraries and Press, the OSU School of Writing, Literature, and Film, the College of Liberal Arts, Kathy Brisker and Tim Steele, and Grass Roots Books and Music.

The event is free and open to the public. Withycombe Hall is located at 2921 S.W. Campus Way, Corvallis. The Lab Theatre entrance is on the east side of the building.