Living Writers: Hua Hsu

The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Hua Hsu grew up desperate to build an identity of his own. But despite his countercultural interests, he struck up a friendship with Ken, a seemingly mainstream San Diego native whose Japanese-American family had been in the country for generations. Hua’s New York Times bestselling memoir Stay True is the poignant story of that friendship and the marks it left on his life, as well as a moving reflection on identity, self-discovery, connection, and the immigrant experience.

Stay True won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir and the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. The National Book Critics Circle writes that Hua has “crafted a transformative addition to the Asian American canon and to the critical conception of what a memoir is capable of.” Stay True is one of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of the Year, a New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year, a Publishers Weekly best nonfiction book of the year, and a New Yorker best book of the year. Ocean Vuong, New York Times bestselling author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, said that Stay True is “writing at its most open, meticulous, forgiving and tender—which is to say, this is writing at its best.” Hua pays tribute to his friend by bringing their shared memories to life, elevating the entire memoir genre “with a kind of athletic ease” (Vanity Fair).

A staff writer at The New Yorker since 2017 and a contributor since 2014, Hua has covered a range of topics: from immigrant culture and student debt to hip-hop and affirmative action. In addition to Stay True, he is the author of A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific. He currently teaches at Bard College and has previously taught at Harvard and Vassar College. Hua serves on the executive board of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Critical Minded, an initiative to create opportunities for cultural critics of color, and was formerly a fellow at the New America Foundation and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at the New York Public Library.

Stay True was picked as Colgate's 2026 community read. The Community Reads Committee, which is composed of faculty, staff, and student representatives, stewarded the selection of the text.

Hsu will visit Colgate as part of the 2026 Living Writers series.

This series is hosted by the Department of English and Creative Writing with generous support provided by the Parshley Christ Endowment for Living Writers, the Olive B. O'Connor Foundation, as well as the Offices of the Provost/Dean and the Office of the President.

View the complete list of author visits.