Join BMI for a reading and conversation with Grace Talusan, author of The Body Papers, with 2024-25 Shearing Fellow Monica Macansantos. 

Grace Talusan wrote The Body Papers, which won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and the Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright, US Artists, the Brother Thomas Fund, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council as well as with artist residencies, most recently at MASS MoCA and Vermont Studio Center. She teaches writing at Brown University and is on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She was born in the Philippines, raised in New England, and currently lives outside of Boston. 

Monica Macansantos holds an MFA from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD from the International Institute of Modern Letters at the Victoria University of Wellington. She is the author of the forthcoming essay collection Returning to My Father’s Kitchen, and the story collection Love and Other Rituals. Her work has been recognized as Notable in the Best American Essays 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2016. She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the I-Park Foundation, and others.

This event is co-presented by Kwentuhan at Chikahan, a Las Vegas Filipino Book Club. The goal of the club is to read and respond to the works of critically acclaimed Filipino authors, towards finding meaning in everyday struggles and triumphs.

Parking/getting there: Parking on UNLV’s campus is free and open to all after 7 p.m.; reserved parking spots are enforced 24 hours a day, but you may park in any staff, student, or paid spots. To find the Rogers Literature & Law Building, please turn onto East Harmon Avenue and take it as far as you can into campus. We encourage you to park in Lot I or Lot J as they’re closest to our building.