Smith: Santa Rosa High alum, author returns

Twenty-two years after she graduated from Santa Rosa High School, author Angie Chau is coming back to campus to talk about writing, the lives of immigrants from Vietnam and whatever else might occur to her and the audience.

All are invited to hear Chau in the school’s auditorium at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

A native of Vietnam, Chau is the author of “Quiet As They Come,” a collection of stories of others who started over in America after fleeing war and other perils in Southeast Asia.

The San Francisco Chronicle praised it as “a powerful mix of tragedy and kindness, of miscommunications and all-too-painful empathy, which bound together are a resonating homage to many an immigrant.”

Published in 2010, “Quiet As They Come” was a finalist in First Fiction for The California Book Award, and in Fiction for the Northern California Independent Booksellers’ Award.

Wednesday’s Author’s Night is the latest in a series hosted by the Santa Rosa High School Foundation. Admission is free, and the foundation will accept donations.