Forthcoming Events for My New Memoir, Eat First, Talk Later 2015

So, my long-time-coming memoir, Eat First, Talk Later, has finally become a book I can actually hold in my hand. It's a strange feeling: nerve-wracking yet exciting... The book's been launched and feted in Sydney by lovely friends, students and colleagues, and signed in bookshops, and now I'm anxiously awaiting responses... while also feeling glad to be separated from this huge world that occupied my brain for so many years.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be speaking about that world, about the processes and challenges of getting it down on paper, and of writing memoir in general.


Hope to see you at some of the events below - here in Sydney, but also in Manila at the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators Conference; in Honolulu at the University of Hawai'i Manoa in January 2016 and at Adelaide Writers Week in February 2016. I'll keep you posted!

Author Talks: An Evening with Beth Yahp at Randwick City Library, Tuesday 20 October 2015, 6.30-7.30PM: 

I’m really pleased to be speaking about my “fictional memoir" Eat First, Talk Later and the pleasures and challenges of writing a memoir at the Margaret Martin Library, Level 1, Royal Randwick Shopping Centre Belmore Road, Randwick. Free event. For more info and bookings, see: http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/library/library-events/library-calendar/events/home/the-author-talks-an-evening-with-beth-yahp

In Conversation: Drusilla Modjeska and Beth Yahp, Berkelouw Books, Paddington, 12 November 2015, 6.30-8.30PM: 

Beginning with the disastrous events of the night before her fortieth birthday, in Second Half First Drusilla Modjeska looks back on the experiences of the past thirty years that have shaped her writing, her reading and the way she has lived. In Eat First, Talk Later Beth Yahp persuades her ageing parents on a road trip around their former home, Malaysia. Only the family mantra, ‘Eat first, talk later' keeps them (and perhaps the country) from falling apart. Around them, corruption, censorship of the media, detentions without trial and deaths in custody continue. Join both authors as they converse and explore these two beautifully written, absorbing and deeply honest memoirs. See more at: http://berkelouw.com.au/events/in-conversation-drusilla-modjeska-and-beth-yahp

Beth Yahp in conversation with Patti Miller at The Memoir Club, 1 December 2015, 5.30PM for 6.00-9.00PM: 

Do join us at the Randwick Literary Institute for our last Memoir Club session for 2015, with founder Beth Yahp and one of our strongest supporters, Patti Miller, in conversation about Beth’s new memoir, Eat First, Talk Later. This will also be a party to celebrate all things memoir and the community built and nourished by the Memoir Club for Readers and Writers as we go into recess for the summer. Where: 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick 2031; $15/$10; with a delicious supper by Rosada available to be ordered as usual. See you there!

What Reviewers Have Said So Far:

 

The Adelaide Advertiser gave Eat First, Talk Later four out of five stars (18 October 2015):

And Caroline Baum in Booktopia's September Buzz: "If you think all food memoirs include recipes sugared with nostalgia, think again. This is a far more substantial, bittersweet meal (but without recipes). Yahp travels back to Malaysia with her parents on a second honeymoon, prompting her to think about her family's roots while considering her own mobility and failed relationships, her ambiguous understanding of identity and where she belongs.She grazes on subjects as diverse as the many types of tofu available in Asia, Australia's policy towards refugees and asylum seekers, and the colonial vision of native culture in the musical South Pacific. The result is a complex feast of many dishes, pungent, unfamiliar yet satisfying to both the palate and the mind."