OCEAN VUONG: "The Emperor of Gladness" Reading and Conversation
White Whale hosts Ocean Vuong at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall of Pittsburgh!
Date and time
Location
Carnegie Library Lecture Hall
4400 Forbes Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15213Refund Policy
About this event
- Event lasts 1 hour 30 minutes
White Whale Bookstore is thrilled to welcome bestselling author, award-winning poet, and MacArthur Genius Ocean Vuong back to Pittsburgh in celebration of his latest novel, The Emperor of Gladness! Join us May 20th at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall for an unforgettable evening.
Tickets are required to attend this event. Each ticket—except discounted student tickets— will include a signed copy of The Emperor of Gladness, to be picked up at the event. The author will not be personalizing books, or signing any books brought from home.
Can't attend this time? You can preorder The Emperor of Gladness here. For every confirmed preorder of this book, Penguin Press will donate $0.50 to Queer Liberation Library. Let them know you preordered here.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
“The Emperor of Gladness is a poetic, dramatic and vivid story. Epic in its sweep, the novel also handles intimacy and love with delicacy and deep originality. Hai and Grazina are taken from the margins of American life by Ocean Vuong and, by dint of great sympathy and imaginative genius, placed at the very center of our world.” —Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island and Brooklyn
“A masterwork.” —Bryan Washington, author of Palaver and Family Meal
Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to transform Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community on the brink.
Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Ocean Vuong’s writing—formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness—are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
OCEAN VUONG is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time Is a Mother, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the American Book Award, he used to work as a fast-food server, which inspired The Emperor of Gladness. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City.
Frequently asked questions
Parking is available at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. The entrance to the museum's parking facility is located at the intersection of S. Craig Street and Forbes Avenue. Event parking costs $10 per vehicle. Street parking in Oakland is also available (free after 6pm).
The Carnegie Library Lecture Hall is connected to the following bus routes: 54, 61A, 61B, 61C, 67, 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, 75, 93. All bus routes are subject to change. Please visit Pittsburgh Regional Transit for up-to-date schedules.
The entrance to the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall faces Schenley Drive (near the Frick Fine Arts Building). From the top level of the garage parking lot, face the elevators, follow the pathway to the left that takes you around the outside of the building and to the front doors of the Lecture Hall.
Instruct your driver to stop on Schenley Drive, just in between the Frick Fine Arts Building and the yellow bridge by Phipps Conservatory. You will see city parking along the sidewalk, and the sidewalk branches off on a leveled path that leads straight to the Lecture Hall doors.
Hearing Assistive Devices are available. ASL and CART services can be scheduled upon request. If wheelchair accessible seating is needed (available on the main floor), please notify us at events@whitewhalebookstore.com. Service animals are welcome .
Ocean Vuong will not be personalizing any books or signing books brought from home. All copies of THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS will be signed, and we will also have limited signed backlist for sale at the event.
Refunds are available until 3 days before the event. If you have to cancel last minute, you will not receive a refund, but you may pick up your signed copy of the book at White Whale Bookstore afterward.