Blue in the Face

Paul Benjamin Auster is an American author known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, crime fiction, and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy , Moon Palace , The Music of Chance , The Book of Illusions , and The Brooklyn Follies . Auster was... born in Newark, New Jersey, to Jewish middle class parents of Polish descent, Queenie and Samuel Auster. He grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and was graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood. After graduating from Columbia University in 1970, he moved to Paris, France where he earned a living translating French literature. Since returning to the U.S. in 1974, he has published poems, essays, novels of his own, as well as translations of French writers such as Stéphane Mallarmé and Joseph Joubert. He and his second wife, writer Siri Hustvedt, were married in 1981, and they live in Brooklyn. Together they have one daughter, Sophie Auster. Previously, Auster was married to the acclaimed writer, Lydia Davis. They have one son together, Daniel Auster. He is also the vice-president of PEN American Center.
more

Wayne Wang is a Chinese American film director. Wang was born and raised in Hong Kong, and named after his father's favorite movie star, John Wayne. When he was 17, he moved to the United States with the intention of studying towards eventually entering medical school, but Wang changed his mind... and ended up in the arts, studying film and television at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Chan Is Missing and Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart established his reputation. He is best known for The Joy Luck Club , Maid in Manhattan , and the independent features Smoke and Anywhere but Here . At the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Wang premiered two feature films, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Princess of Nebraska, as well as appearing in the Arthur Dong documentary film Hollywood Chinese. He won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September 2007 for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. He is married to a former Miss Hong Kong, Cora Miao, and lives in San Francisco and New York City.
more