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Thursday, December 2

Four Evenings Discussion: Yaa Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom
Four Evenings - Global Literary Encounters
Time:
6:00 pm
Presenter:
Dr. Tomas Matza, Professor of Anthropology at University of Pittsburgh
Location:
Zoom
Sponsored by:
Global Studies Center along with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures
Cost:
Free and Open to the Public w/ registration
Contact:
Maja Konitzer
Contact Email:
majab@pitt.edu

We are excited to continue our collaboration with the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures "Ten Evenings" series. The Global Studies Center will be once again hosting "Four Evenings: Global Literary Encounters" pre-lecture discussions that put prominent world authors and their work in global perspective. The series is co-sponsored by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Open to all, these evening discussions, conducted by Pitt experts prior to author events with Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures, provide additional insight on prominent writers and engaging issues. You can register for the book discussions and learn more on our website - https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/transcendent-kingdom

Yaa Gyasi’s follow-up to her acclaimed, bestselling Homegoing is powerful, raw, and intimate. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a Ghanaian immigrant family ravaged by depression and addiction—a searing novel of faith, science, religion, and love.

Transcendent Kingdom introduces us to Gifty, a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford, studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Turning to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, Gifty finds herself hungering for her evangelical childhood faith, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. Her debut novel, Homegoing, was awarded the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award for best first book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first book of fiction, the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” honors for 2016, and the American Book Award. She lives in Brooklyn.

Discussion led by Tomas Matza, PhD, Professor of Anthropology. University of Pittsburgh

For questions and more information, contact Maja Konitzer at majab@pitt.edu.