For more than three decades, the Asian American Writers' Workshop has been collecting. First editions and debut collections. Out-of-print titles that disappeared from mainstream shelves before most readers ever found them. Books by writers who came to the Workshop before they had an audience.Today, the Workshop holds one of the largest collections of Asian American literature in the country. Until now, that collection has not been accessible to the public. This year we are turning our collection into a circulating library open to the public, the first dedicated entirely to Asian American literature. Every book we have gathered will be available to borrow, to read, to pass to a friend.We are inviting a founding cohort of readers to make it possible. Sponsor a shelf, and your name will be inscribed in a library built on the belief that Asian American literature deserves a permanent, public, living home.Join us as a Founding Reader. Because every library needs a first.Sponsorship Tiers$500: Your name will be included on a plaque displayed prominently in the main reading room.$1,000: One large shelf located inside an office or conference room will be inscribed in your name.$1,500: One square shelf located in the main reading room will be inscribed in your name.$2,000: One large shelf located in the main reading room will be inscribed in your name.Donation amounts outside of the suggested amounts will be rounded down to the nearest sponsorship tier. Donations less than $500 will be listed on the AAWW website but will not be acknowledged with an inscription in the library. Thank you for helping us make this space possible!

“First sentences are doors to worlds.” —Ursula K. Le GuinThat’s exactly what a first sentence does: It opens. It grabs. It lunges. Sometimes, it screams. In this course, we will uncover what makes a memorable first sentence that captures and holds hostage the reader’s attention. Every story starts with a sentence: a combination of words that casts a spell upon the reader.In this class, you will be asked to notice phrases you encounter in your everyday life that glitter, that crackle, that feel charged with first-line energy. You’ll analyze what attracts you to a first sentence, whether it’s a compelling hook, beautiful language, a strong sense of voice, etc., and you’ll read examples of first sentences to learn what patterns and strategies authors have used in the past to reel in their readers. Finally, in this generative course, you will write many, many first sentences that you’ll be able to use as springboards for your own writing projects.We will be reading first sentences and excerpts by the likes of Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Ha Jin, George Saunders, Jesmyn Ward, Alain Mabanckou—and your classmates. By the end of this course, you will have a bank of first sentences to draw from, a hall full of doors to expand into worlds.Six-Week Course Outline Session I – The Plot Twist: We’ll examine first sentences that start normally, then suddenly careen in a completely unexpected direction. These subversive, whiplash-inducing sentences generate momentum that keeps you reading. In the latter half of each session, we’ll write and workshop sentences of our own.Session II – The Most Unbelievable Thing: One of the most common and effective ways to begin a story is to start with the most unbelievable thing. No throat-clearing or table-setting—just straight to the weirdness of it all.Session III – The Gnomic Mood: This is a grammatical mood used in some of the most iconic first sentences of all time, favored by writers from Jane Austen to Leo Tolstoy. We’ll talk about what this mood is and why it works so well for first sentences.Session IV – The Voice: Ever start reading something and immediately fall in love with the narrator’s voice? In this session, we’ll study first sentences that instantly immerse us in a unique perspective, and we’ll discover how to make that magic happen in our own work.Session V – The Unconventional: Sometimes, a sentence is just so strange, beautiful, or otherwise unconventional that it demands one’s attention. This week, we’ll explore sentences whose distinctiveness and peculiarity keep the reader hooked.Session VI – The Rest of It: Congratulations—you’re now a certified expert on first sentences! Now you just have to write…the rest of it. In our final class, we will explore how to continue writing from your first sentences and develop the critical skill of ensuring that the momentum from the first sentence carries through the rest of the work.About the InstructorBaylina Pu graduated from Yale in 2023. Her work has been published in Michigan Quarterly Review Online, New Ohio Review, Black Warrior Review Online, The Yale Literary Magazine, Dirt, and more. She received her MFA from Columbia University, where she was awarded the Felipe De Alba Fellowship, and her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net. She has taught for Columbia University and The Center for Fiction and currently teaches at Gotham Writers Workshop.

This virtual workshop is designed for writers and filmmakers developing original short films. Over six weeks, participants will build and refine their projects with an emphasis on emotional structure, character, visual storytelling, atmosphere and scene construction.Through guided exercises, group discussion and feedback on pages, participants will develop their ideas from concept to draft, leaving the workshop with a strong foundation, or completed draft, for a short film.