Speakers:
Ranwarat Kobsirithiwara, Associate Professor, Department of Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University, Thailand
Veeraporn Nitiprapha, Novelist
Moderator:
Arnika Fuhrmann, Department of Comparative Literature, HKU
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2026
Time: 5:00 pm Hong Kong Time
Venue: Faculty Lounge (430), 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, The University of Hong Kong
Registration link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=110207
All are welcome. Registration required.
This event brings together Ranwarat Kobsirithiwara, one of Thailand’s leading scholars of Southeast Asian literature, and the acclaimed Thai novelist Veeraporn Nitiprapha, whose novel The Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat was recently published in Chinese translation.
In her presentation, Ranwarat Kobsirithiwara examines grief and loss in contemporary Thai women’s fiction through three novels: The Lake of Tears by Veeraporn Nitiprapha, Born into Departing by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, and Soon We Will Disappear by Ormkaew Kallayanapong. Drawing on Affect Theory, she explores how sadness shapes narrative structures, bodily experiences, memory, and female subjectivity, offering new perspectives on contemporary Thai women’s writing.
The event will also feature a reading by Veeraporn Nitiprapha from her essay World That Is Full of Answers Without a Question, followed by a conversation between the two speakers and an audience Q&A. Together, the event offers unique insights into Thai and Southeast Asian literature, exploring key themes of affect, myth, female subjectivity and the instability of life across academic and literary spheres.
Ranwarat Kobsirithiwara is an Associate Professor at Department of Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Kasetsart University, Thailand. She holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature and a doctoral degree in Literature and Comparative Literature from the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University. Her master’s thesis examined the happiness of elderly women in Thai novels (1982–2009), while her doctoral dissertation explored the construction of Singaporean identity in the works of ethnic Chinese Singaporean women writers. Her research interests include comparative literature, Southeast Asian literature, women’s writing, diasporic literature, Korean literature, and gender and sexuality studies.
Veeraporn Nitiprapha began writing stories as a teenager. Born and raised in Bangkok, she still lives there today. She has worked as an editor for a fashion magazine and as a copywriter for advertising agencies. These days, she is a mother of a young man, owner of four moody cats, and a devoted cook and gardener. A full-time writer, she also runs a writing workshop. Her novel The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth won the S.E.A. Write Award in 2015. Her second award-winning novel, The Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat, won the same award in 2018, making her the first woman to receive it twice. Her latest novel in English translation is The Lake of Tears.
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