Articles by Sonya Chung
July 27, 2011
Scared Straight: Writers and The New Happiness 34
Whereas previous generations of accomplished writers were awash in alcoholism and cigarettes, sexual-romantic openness, spiritual misery, and financial ruin, today’s young writers are more likely to faithfully drink 8-10 glasses of water daily, be married, get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night, and have a decent credit score.
July 14, 2011
John Sayles’s “Amigo” to Premiere in NYC August 10 0
The new film by master indie director John Sayles, Amigo, will premiere in New York on August 10th as the opening night presentation of the Asian American International Film Festival. Tickets just went on sale here; Sayles will be appearing in-person for a Q&A. ”Amigo” is Sayles’s 17th feature film and a kind of historical companion piece [...]
June 29, 2011
Ayelet Waldman talks Hobgoblin and More 2
“[T]he characters and story are very very far from my life. I think [Red Hook Road] is the best thing I’ve ever written, which, when you think about it, is pretty telling. Perhaps we should all be grateful that I’m now writing a TV pilot about magicians and con men who spy for the British in World War II.”
June 21, 2011
On Bad Blurbs and the Heavy Lightness of Yates’s The Easter Parade 7
The blurby back-cover declarations struck me as so off-pitch, that they in fact helped me to clarify for myself just what I think The Easter Parade is, and isn’t.
April 15, 2011
Friday Night Lights, The Final Season: Join the Team 15
What has surprised – and in a way instructed – me most is how effectively FNL employs what is essentially formulaic drama; that is, how aware we are of being immersed in a constructed moral universe, and yet how little the drama’s predictability compromises either one’s engagement or the show’s objective artfulness and excellence.
April 1, 2011
Sonya Chung Reading at Long Island University 0
I’ll be reading at Long Island University in Brooklyn on Monday, April 4th at 12 noon, with Gary Shteyngart. I have no idea what I’ll be reading – possibly something new, or something very old.
