University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Yiyun Li will read from her new novel, Kinder Than Solitude, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

Kinder Than Solitude is the story of three people whose lives are changed by a murder one of them may have committed. Moving back and forth in time, between America today and China in the 1990s, the book illustrates how even the most innocent person is capable of a heartless crime.

Li is the recipient of a MacArthur fellowship, the Frank O'Connor Award, the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, the Whiting Writers' Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. Li is the author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, The Vagrants, and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl. She teaches writing at the University of California, Davis.

“Li’s characters are portrayed with a harsh beauty, and one's emotions become deeply engaged with their fates. This is an exceptional novel and Yiyun Li has grown into one of our major novelists,” says Salman Rushdie.

David Wystan Owen, a writer and former student of Li’s, will moderate this special event.

The Iowa Writers’ Workshop is a graduate program in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this reading, call Jan Weissmiller at Prairie Lights in advance at 319-337-2681

For a UI arts calendar and details about upcoming events visit the Arts Iowa website.