March 10-13, 2010: Featured poet at Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness. Split This Rock's mission is to call poets to a greater role in public life and foster a national community of activist poets; to build the audience for poetry of provocation and witness from our home in the nation's capital; and to celebrate poetic diversity and the transformative power of the imagination. The biannual festival will feature four days of readings, panel discussions, workshops, open mics, activism, and a book fair. Read more about the Split This Rock Poetry Festival at SplitThisRock.org. (Washington, DC)

November 22, 2009: Reception and exhibition for social historic photographer Wang Ping and abstract intimate photographer Tim White (YearOfTheWhiteDog.com) at Barbette Restaurant from 3-5PM. (Minneapolis, MN)

November 6, 2009 - January 6, 2010: An exhibit at the Shoebox Gallery entitled Winter Worm Summer Plant features a poem and photos of a Tibetan herbal medicine that grows in the mouth of a worm and its effect on the economy and ecosystem of Tibet. The Gallery is always open for viewing as it is a small storefront window, part of the Robert's Shoes store in the Chicago-Lake neighborhood. Reading with performances TBA. (Minneapolis, MN)

November 2-12, 2009: Artist collaboration on Ten Thousand Waves: Better Life, a documentary video installation about Chinese immigrants in London. (Shanghai and Guiling, China)

October 29-31, 2009: Featured poet during the John R. Milton Writers' Conference at the University of South Dakota. (Vermillion, SD)

October 10, 2009: Now in its 20th year, the 2009 Sinclair Lewis Writers' Conference is hosted by the Sinclair Lewis Foundation and Sauk Centre Community Education and will be held at the Sauk Centre High School auditorium. In addition to Wang Ping discussing how to write short stories, William Kent Krueger will talk about how to use suspense, Daniel Slager will talk about the future of books, and the keynote speaker will be Will Weaver. Furthermore, a panel discussion will feature all four on Basics of Writing and Publishing. The cost is $60, which includes lunch, breaks and a reception following at the Palmer House Hotel. College students and senior citizens may register for $55; high school students may attend for free, but must register and pay $15 for lunch and breaks. For details, go to saukherald.com/ftp/writers or call Jim Umhoefer at 320-352-2735 (evenings). (Sauk Centre, MN)

July 6-12, 2009: Naropa Summer Writing Program Workshop (Week Four) - Where the Waters Gather and the Rivers Meet: Writing with Fragments and Collages. Using rivers as a metaphor that brings all things together, this workshop explores the possibility of transforming the seemingly trivial, personal, fragmented and chaotic into the river of art. Participants will experiment with taking fragments of mixed genres and turning them into collage poems or collage prose. Read more about this workshop and the Naropa Summer Writing Program at naropa.edu. (Boulder, CO)

April 25, 2009: Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Annual Meeting - Presentation of the 2007 Book Award in Poetry/Prose from the AAAS for the The Last Communist Virgin. (Honolulu, Hawaii)

April 14, 2009: University of MN - Reading at 7PM. (Minneapolis, MN)

March 25, 2009: Highland Library - Reading at 7PM. (St. Paul, MN)

March 21, 2009: Princeton University Althea Ward Clark w'21 Reading Series - Reading at 4:30PM with Sheila Kohler at the James M. Stewart '32 Theater, Lewis Center for the Arts. (Princeton, NJ)

February 11-14, 2009: AWP Conference - Reading with Charles Baxter and others for the Loft Mentor program at 1:30PM on February 12 and a panel discussion on February 14 at 10:30AM, entitled The Mama Drama. Based on the anthology Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers, a collection of 21 essays edited by Kathryn Kysar that explores being a daughter, featured writers include Heid Erdrich, Sheila O'Connor, Carrie Pomeroy, and Morgan Grayce Willow. (Chicago, IL)

November 21, 2008: San Francisco Youth Museum - Reading from selected works at 7PM. (San Francisco, CA)

November 14, 2008: Riding Shotgun: Women Write About Their Mothers - 7PM at Carleton College, authors Kathryn Kysar, Heid Erdrich, Shannon Olson, Sheila O'Connor, Faith Sullivan, and Wang Ping tackle a topic close to their hearts: Mom. See more details February 11-14 above about the Riding Shotgun series. (Northfield, MN)

November 6, 2008: Reading at the Gustavus Adolphus Interpretive Center from 7–9PM, sponsored by the English Department and Diversity Center. Free and open to the public. (Saint Peter, MN)

November 3, 2008: Rochester Community & Technical College - Reading from and discussion about The Last Communist Virgin at 11AM, followed by a children's literature class at noon about The Dragon Emperor. (Rochester, MN)

Transcripts, recordings, presentations,
and Web sites from previous events

2008 Minnesota Book Awards
For Novel & Short Story (April 12, 2008)
Watch as Wang Ping accepts the 2008 Minnesota Book Award in the category of Novel & Short Story for The Last Communist Virgin. (2:14 / 7.4MB)

KARE 11 (KMSP TV - MN)
Road to China Series (April 8, 2008)
Watch an interview from the nightly news on Wang Ping's travels to China in relation to Chinese conflict in Tibet, globalization, megaprojects, and preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. (2:50 / 9.3MB)

Macalester College
Environment Thursdays at Noon (October 11, 2007)
View a research presentation file on the new Qinghai-Tibet railroad and its impact on the environment, people, and source of Asian water. (PDF/12.4 MB - for best resolution allow full download before scrolling)

Minnesota Public Radio Interview
Wang Ping's Long Journey (May 1, 2007)
Go to Minnesota Public Radio online for an interview with Wang Ping by senior news editor Euan Kerr that aired during the Morning Edition program.

Black & White Violin
Artist Project Collaboration (May, 2007)
Listen to an audio file by New York composer Susie Ibarra that features the spoken poem "Golden Phoenix" by Wang Ping. (8:05 / 9MB) Also visit SusieIbarra.com for her news, performances, and projects.

Behind the Gate
Multimedia Exhibit (March, 2007)
Intended to introduce visitors of all ages to the benefits and dangers of the Three Gorges Dam, and to detail stories of individuals displaced by the project and its environmental impacts, visit the exhibit Web site for complete documentary photos, texts, and video.

Macalester Faculty Talks
The Last Communist Virgin (January 2007)
Wang Ping talks about her collection of short stories, The Last Communist Virgin, and how her experiences in rural China shaped the book. (13:11 / 15MB)

University of Chicago International House
China and the Future of the World (April 28-29, 2006)
See a PowerPoint file on a presentation, entitled "Women in Modern China - From Iron Maiden to Super Model", given for a spring colloquium arranged by the University of Chicago International House.

Also go to the International House Web site for additional downloads, including video, audio, and written transcripts from the event (Panel: Politics and Society in China).

Minnesota Center for Book Arts
Winter Book Poetry Anthology (December 2005)
Listen to two poems as recorded on the accompanying CD to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts 2005 Winter Book Poetry Anthology - There Is No Other Way to Speak:

1. Breaker (1:09 / 1.6MB) 2. Outcry (musical accompaniment by Jesse Katzman - 2:37 / 3.6MB)

Iowa Public Radio
Live from Prairie Lights (February 17, 2004)
Host Julie Englander introduces Wang Ping at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City. As she reads from her poetry collections during this 60-minute broadcast, Ping illustrates the traditions, both beautiful and brutal, of her native China. In doing so, she describes her transition to life in the U.S. and her inspirations for writing.

The audio file requires RealPlayer software, a free download available on real.com.

Random House
Bold Type (March 2002)
In a conversation with Kelley Kawano about her interest in the topic of footbinding, Ping explained her motivation for the focus of her dissertation research and resulting cultural study book, Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China.

Between the Lines:
Asian American Women's Poetry (2001)
Watch a clip of Wang Ping explaining how she discovered writing and of a video interpretation of her reading "No Sense Of Direction" (from The Magic Whip) for a production by Yunah Hong. (3:50 / 9.7MB)

KARE 11 (KMSP TV - MN)
Aching for Beauty (October 2000)
Watch an interview from the nightly news on her book, Aching for Beauty, how she came to write it, what footbinding means, and what she hoped to accomplish. (4:25 / 9.4MB)

Poets on Poetry
March 19, 1999
Daniel Kane interviews Ping about poems, poetics, and how to teach poetry to students in grades K-12. Ping presented her poem "Syntax" and discussed how speakers of English as a second language can write good poems in English without worrying too much about grammar and syntax.

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD)
Artists on the Cutting Edge (April 10, 1997)
Go to YouTube to view "Flash of Selfish Consciousness: The Poetry of Wang Ping", presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) and UCSD-TV.