Join Lofty Pigeon Books this Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month for this special panel discussion featuring two singular and seminal memoirists on growing up Chinese American in New York: Alvin Eng (Our Laundry Our Town: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond) and Qian Julie Wang (Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood).

The authors will be joined by historian Alex Ho for a discussion, audience Q&A, reception, and book signing.

About Alvin Eng

Alvin Eng is a native NYC author/playwright, songwriter, educator and performer. His plays and performances have been seen Off-Broadway, in Paris, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China. He is currently a New York Public Library Long Term Fellow—developing a companion book to his acclaimed memoir, OUR LAUNDRY, OUR TOWN: My Chinese American Life from Flushing to the Downtown Stage and Beyond. His next book, URBAN ORACLE BONES, is a stage-to-page adaptation of his acoustic punk raconteur performance piece, HERE COMES JOHNNY YEN AGAIN, and examines the impact of the Opium Wars on the Chinese diaspora of NYC and the “heroin chic” punk/counterculture. He is on the Artist Advisory Committee of the New York Foundation for the Arts.

About Qian Julie Wang

Qian Julie Wang is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country: A Memoir of An Undocumented Childhood, which was named a best book of 2021 by the New York Times, President Obama, NPR, Newsweek, and more. Qian Julie is also managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a firm dedicated to advancing educational civil rights for marginalized populations. She lives in Kensington with her family, just minutes away from where she lived during the years that Beautiful Country traces, and is proud to call Lofty Pigeon her local bookstore.

About Alex Ho

Alex Jia-feng Ho is a lecturer in Asian American history and Chinese culture and history at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Alex is a second-generation Taiwanese American, who grew up in Central New Jersey and currently resides in Brooklyn. He has previously worked in museum education and media arts education at the Museum of the Moving Image and is currently a 2025 CUNY Adjunct Incubator Awardee.