Former Houstonian Who Wrote Crazy Rich Asians Tells All in a Lively Chat for Inprint

The Inprint Poets & Writers Ball remains as one of the most special events on Houston’s fundraising milieu with its spotlight on both a best-selling author and up and coming talents from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. The 2022 evening delivered as promised with an engaging conversation between New York Times best-selling author and former Houstonian Kevin Kwan and KTRK Channel 13 news anchor Melanie Lawson.

The lively chat with the author of Crazy Rich Asians covered a variety of topics including transformation of the novel into a highly successful film, family stories from Singapore, culture shock after moving to Clear Lake at age 11, his ultimate happiness growing up in the Houston area and the importance of Asian American representation in literature and on screen.

Before the seated dinner, salon readings were presented by award winning authors Niki Herd and Justin Jannise and by Isle McElroy, whose debut novel  The Atmospherians has been named a Best Book of 2021 by Esquire, a Book You Need to Read by Harper’s Bazaar, and an Editors’ Choice by The New York Times, Vanity Fair and BuzzFeed. A literary feast indeed.

As a very special gift for the 350 guests who helped raise more than $440,000 for Inprint programs, Fiona McGettigan and Alan Krathaus of CORE Design Studio created a handmade limited-edition chapbook based on the opening pages of Kevin Kwan’s latest novel Sex and Vanity, each copy of which was numbered and signed by the author.

Also part of the Inprint gala tradition, chef extraordinaire Robert Del Grande created a three-course menu for the evening and shared an accompanying menu “memoir” which captured the literary inspiration for the meal.

The vibrant evening, chaired by Cullen Geiselman, honored Inprint executive director Rich Levy for his 25 years of leadership of the city’s leading literary arts nonprofit which serves more than 15,000 annually.

PC Seen: Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Consuelo Duroc-Danner, Eloise and Steve Brice, Beth Robertson, Lillie Robertson, Mary S and Jack Dawson, Kate Dearing and Steve Fowler,  Sabrina and Kevin Lewis, Sarah Rothenberg and Robert Azencott, Sarah Beth and Paul Seifert, Doreen Stoller and Dan Piette, Liara Tamani and Larry Animashaun, and Michelle and Rishi Varma.