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Virtual Author Talk: Grace M. Cho, "Tastes Like War"

Enjoy this insightful chat with award-winning author Grace M. Cho as she discusses her memoir, "Tastes Like War". Visit libraryc.org/plainfieldlibrary to register for this Author Talk and more.

This is part of our Author Talk series, bringing nationally celebrated and recognized authors to you. To join the next Author Talk from the comfort of your own home, check out https://libraryc.org/plainfieldlibrary, and keep an eye out for future Author Talks at the library!

Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history for the roots of her mother’s schizophrenia. In her mother’s final years, Grace learned to cook dishes from her mother’s childhood in order to invite the past into the present, and to hold space for her mother’s multiple voices at the table. And through careful listening over these shared meals, Grace discovered not only the things that broke the brilliant, complicated woman who raised her—but also the things that kept her alive.

Grace M. Cho is Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of Staten Island. Her work crosses disciplinary boundaries and seeks to engage popular audiences. From 2005 to 2007 she was a contributing performance artist for Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the Forgotten War, a collaborative art project based on the oral histories of Korean War survivors and their children. Her participation in Still Present Pasts influenced the form and content of her first book, Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy and the Forgotten War (University of Minnesota, 2008) which combined fiction, performance, autoethnography and sociological research. It won a 2010 book award from the American Sociological Association for its innovative methodology. Her second book, Tastes Like War, was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the winner of the 2022 Asian Pacific American Literature Award for Adult Nonfiction.

Image source: PGTPL