Talk: This is Not a Disabled Story

06:30 pm – 07:30 pm, Wed 18 Dec 2024
Goethe Institut
56-58-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Hanoi
Registration link

From Goethe Institut:

A common approach to understanding literary works is to explore the author’s biography, raising questions such as what inspired them to write or how they perceive literature. For writers with disabilities, however, their stories are often confined to conventional narratives, such as overcoming adversity or using literature as a “healing remedy.” This framing reduces their experiences to simplistic tropes and diminishes the depth and complexity of their stories.

In the event “Writing From and Beyond the ‘Limits’ of the Body,” two writers, Eva Eikhout from the Netherlands and Nguyễn Thị Kim Hòa from Vietnam, will share insights into their literary journeys, challenging the narrow view often placed on literature written by people with disabilities. They will discuss how their experiences with disability, body, and culture have shaped their perspectives on writing and literature. Rather than seeing disability as something to be overcome, both writers view it as a source of inspiration—a unique lens that offers a different way of seeing and understanding the world, which is powerfully reflected in their works.

Biography of the speaker

Eva Eikhout is a program producer and presenter from the Netherlands, working for the media organization BNNVARA. She is also an event coordinator and an inspiring speaker. She gave TEDxTalks in 2016 and 2023 and has extensive experience coordinating events organized by companies, ministries, cities, RadboudUMC Medical Center, and Rabobank Rijk van Nijmegen. In the spring of 2024, her debut work, This Is Not a Book by a Girl Without Arms & Legs, will be published. Eva writes weekly columns for several magazines/apps/social media in the Netherlands and has also been a guest editor.

Nguyễn Thị Kim Hòa is a writer from the “small desert” region of Ninh Thuận. She began writing at the age of 25 and has written extensively about women and children. She has published 15 books, including 8 children’s books. Her works have earned her several literary awards, and some of her creations are included in school curricula. She continues to use literature to live many lives within a single lifetime.

Moderator

Quyen Nguyen (*1984) is a Doctor of English literature and an independent researcher and critic. She is an English-Vietnamese translator. Her published translated works include “What We Talk When We Talk Love” by Raymond Carver (co-translator), “Atonement” by Ian McEwan, “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides. She is also the co-founder of a non-profit literary website Zzz Review in Vietnam.

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Goethe-Institut Hanoi 56-58-60 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ba Dinh, Hanoi Tel.: +84 24 3734 2251 Fax: +84 24 3734 2254 [email protected] website