Events › Meet Rita Chang-Eppig, Author of Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

Join us on Wednesday, July 26 at 6:00 pm to meet Rita Chang-Eppig, as she discusses her newest book, DEEP AS THE SKY, RED AS THE SEA! Rita will be in conversation with Sasha Vasilyuk, author of the debut novel Your Presence Is Mandatory (2024). Register here to receive your free Zoom invitation.

A book of salt and grit, blood and sweat, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is an unmissable portrait of a woman who leads with the courage and ruthlessness of our darkest and most beloved heroes. 

When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet.

But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung's cutthroat retributions create problems all their own. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life.

About Rita Chang-Eppig

Rita Chang-Eppig received her MFA from NYU. Her novel about the infamous pirate queen of China, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea, will be published by Bloomsbury in June 2023. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2021, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Conjunctions, Clarkesworld, The Rumpus, Virginia Quarterly Review,  and elsewhere. She has received support from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, the Writers Grotto, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University.   

About Sasha Vasilyuk 

Sasha Vasilyuk is a journalist and author of the debut novel Your Presence Is Mandatory, about a Ukrainian Jewish WWII soldier and his family who reckon with his lifelong secrecy, which is forthcoming from Bloomsbury in Spring 2024. Sasha has written a lot about Eastern Europe and other cultural topics. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, NBC, Harper’s Bazaar, BBC Radio, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, The Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, and Narrative. She has won several writing awards, including the Solas Award for Best Travel Writing and the NATJA award. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children.