Author Julie Otsuka Speaking at Loyola University Maryland Mar. 16

BALTIMORE – Best-selling novelist, Julie Otsuka will deliver the keynote address, "An American Story: War, Memory and Erasure,” at Loyola University Maryland’s 2023 Humanities Symposium.

Free and open to the general public as well as the region’s academic communities, the lecture takes place Thursday, Mar. 16, at 6:30 p.m., in McGuire Hall (Andrew White Student Center, 4501 North Charles St., Baltimore, Md. 21210). It will be followed by a book signing with Otsuka, with books available for purchase.

About Otsuka
Otsuka is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her writing has appeared in Granta, Harper’s, Newsweek, 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories, The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, The Best American Short Stories 2012, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012, and has been read aloud on PRI’s “Selected Shorts” and BBC Radio 4’s “Book at Bedtime.”

Her first novel, When the Emperor Was Divine – about the incarceration of a Japanese-American family during World War II – is based on her own family history. It won the Asian American Literary Award and the American Library Association's Alex Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. The book has been assigned to all incoming freshmen at more than 60 colleges and universities and is a regular ‘Community Reads’ selection across the United States; however, it was banned by Wisconsin’s Muskego-Norway school district in 2022.

Otsuka’s second novel, The Buddha in the Attic – about a group of young Japanese ‘picture brides’ who sailed to America in the early 1900s – was a finalist for the National Book Award 2011. An international bestseller, it won the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2011 Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction, the prestigious Prix Femina étranger 2012 and the Albatros Literaturpreis 2013. In 2022, Otsuka released her third novel, The Swimmers, about a group of obsessed recreational swimmers and what happens to them when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool.

About the Keynote
Otsuka’s keynote address will touch on her family’s experience in the camps during World War II, the dwindling number of survivors of the camps left and her desire not to let their story be forgotten. She also will discuss the evolution of When the Emperor Was Divine ’s reception over the years and the nationwide attempts to erase/suppress certain histories from the official record.

“We hope that this event will not only bring attention to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, but also allow students and community members to reflect upon a larger history of exclusion and racism toward immigrants in the United States,” said Marian Crotty, Ph.D., Humanities Symposium director and associate professor of writing.

“It is very timely as we are living in an age in which immigrants are being used as scapegoats and political pawns while American history is being whitewashed in many school districts,” Crotty added. “The recent banning of Otsuka’s novel by a Wisconsin school board reflects a growing resistance to examining painful parts of American history as well as the growing need to provide spaces for these important conversations.”

Admission is free, but advance registration is required. To reserve seating, visit loyola.edu/join-us/humanities-symposium, email centerforthehumanities@loyola.edu or call 410.617.2617.

About the Symposium
Since 1986, Loyola’s Humanities Center has sponsored the annual Humanities Symposium – a series of events related to a particular text for students, faculty, friends of the University and the Baltimore community. The main goal has been to get a large portion of the Loyola community to read the same work at roughly the same time and to be engaged in a common inquiry. Keynote speakers have included Elie Wiesel, Toni Morrison, Tracy Chevalier, Czeslaw Milosz, Phil Klay, Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale and William Bennett.

Otsuka’s keynote address will cap off a month of Loyola faculty workshops, student-faculty colloquia and activities exploring how people who are forcibly displaced or estranged from home can find a sense of belonging. On Feb. 23, acclaimed visual artist, Kei Ito will unveil a unique art installation, The Unknown Citizen.

Fundamentally rooted in the trauma and legacy passed down from his late grandfather – who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Ito’s work meditates on the complexity of his identity and heritage through examining the past, current trajectories and visualizing the invisible such as radiation, memory and life/death. Ito received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology followed by his MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. His works are included in major institutional collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Norton Museum of Art, Chroma at California Institute of Integral Studies and the Eskenazi Museum of Art. He is currently teaching at the International Center of Photography in NYC.

About the Center
The Center for the Humanities was established in 1983 through the generosity of many donors and of the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide strength and vision to the humanities at Loyola University Maryland. It offers lectures, lectures series and fine arts performances; other forms of research support for both faculty and students, and various forms of support for teaching in the humanities. For more information, visit www.loyola.edu/department/center-humanities.