In a debut reading from her new book, current Hedgebrook resident Pramila Venkateswaran will appear at Golden Otter Books and Coffee in Langley Thursday, Aug. 22, at 7:30 p.m. She will read from “Thirtha,” which is being published this month by Yuganta Press of Stamford, Conn., and will answer questions from the audience about her work and experiences.

Venkateswaran immigrated to the United States from India in 1982 to pursue a doctoral degree in English. She is a professor of English in New York state. Cross-cultural metaphors and the voices of movement and displacement imbue and enliven her work.

“Thirtha” refers to the process and medium through which the journeyor or pilgrim reflects the mixing, dissolving and replenishing of stories heard along the way.

“Thirtha, the pilgrimage my family took every summer during my childhood to various parts of South India to visit temples and the many wayside shrines … continues to inform my life. In my act of fording the oceans between India and America, I become the pilgrim once again, “said Venkateswaran.

“A central metaphor for the immigrant in American, journeying is not merely the physical movement from place to place, temple to temple, but is the act of opening oneself up to what each movement offers. Along the way the pilgrim becomes the conduit for the voice of other people speaking from the emptiness of displacement of the fullness of having arrived.”

Currently at Hedgebrook working on a book under development that addresses women’s experiences of exile — physically and emotionally — and their arrival at places of belonging, she uses stories from Afghan, South Asian and consumer culture to explore her subject.

Gold Otter Books and Coffee will open at 6:30 p.m., with a coffee bar and baked goods prior to the reading. Golden Otter Books is at 124 Second St., Langley. For more information, call (360) 221-8929.

For more information on Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers on Whidbey Island, go to www.hedgebrook.org.