McKnight Artist Fellowship in Creative Writing

I’ve been selected to be a 2022 McKnight Writing Fellow. Thank you to the McKnight Foundation for this generous gift and to The Loft Literary Center for their administration of the fellowship. Immense gratitude to the judge, the inimitable Ilya Kaminsky, for finding my poems worthy of this honor. Congratulations to all the Fellows and Honorably Named.

Here is the official announcement.

Book Announcement!

So excited to announce that my debut book of poems ‘membery’ will be published by the amazing Tupelo Press!! You can read about my book’s project here.

If you’d like to be notified when you can pre-order the book and when the book is actually launched, please join my email list. Expect the book in late 2023.

Upcoming Reading at Franklin College (Remote Reading)

I’m in the middle of my second writing residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN and making solid headway into my book of poems. The trees are golden and the chilly wind of winter is starting.

Next month on November 11, 2021 at 7PM EST, Franklin College is hosting me and the poet Sadiyah Bashir for an interfaith poetry reading and discussion, on Zoom, though the event is hybrid so if you are in Indiana, you can attend in person. For remote viewing, you can register here. Hope to see you there. I’ll read poems from my forthcoming book.

2021 Updates

I’m currently at my first writing residency, at the wonderful and breathtakingly beautiful Storyknife Writing Residency in Alaska. I’m so thankful to all the women writers who have spent years of time making this magical place exist.

Other updates, I attended Winter Tin House Workshop in January and will be attending Summer Tin House Workshop for the second time next week, via zoom. Last month I attended the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference and the Indiana University Writers Conference. I’m also currently a Interdisciplinary Writers Lab Fellow with Kearney Street Workshop, for the entire summer. A very busy summer!

I will be reading (and talking to students) at Franklin College’s Interfaith Understanding through the Arts and Humanities Program as one of two artist-speakers. The event is scheduled for November 11, 2021. Further details are forthcoming.

I read a poem as part of the Solidarity Vigil for the people killed in the mass shooting at the FedEx plant in Indianapolis. Over 10K people logged in during the live event. It is a deep wound that we have such events at all. My deep condolences to everyone who lost family or friends on that horrific day. The e-vigil is available to watch here.

Thanks for checking in.

2020 Updates

Things haven’t worked as planned this year, but I wanted to share some of my good news in the past few months.

I was pleased to attend Tin House Summer Writers Workshop for the first time. I got to work with Aimee Nezhukumatathil and meet lovely poets from across the country.

I was honored to attend the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference as a recipient of the Anne G. Locascio Scholarship. I was lucky to work with Michelle Peñaloza.

I was honored to be chosen as an honorable mention for the McKnight Artist Fellowship, sponsored by Loft Literary Center. Natalie Diaz was the judge.

I was selected to attend Storyknife, a writers residency in Alaska, for women and non-binary writers. This is postponed until next year.

I was honored to receive the MRAC Next Step Grant.

Stay well.

Literary Witnesses Series Reading

I will be reading poems as part of the Literary Witnesses Series, hosted by Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis, on February 10, 2020, from 7-8:30 PM. Sean Hill, wonderful poet and conference director of the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, is headlining the event. Other readers include Erin Lynn Marsh, Naomi Cohn, and Julian Randall, all fellow poets whose work I adore and with whom I have had the good fortune of being in workshop with over the past few years.

Here is a link to the event details.

Djerassi Artist Residency

I’m so excited to share I will be an artist in residence at the Djerassi Artist Residency next year. This will be my first artist residency!

Preorder: The World I Leave You

I’m proud to share I will have poems in the new anthology The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit, published by Orison Books in March 2020. You can pre-order the book here. The book features poems by many poetry luminaries I admire, including Li-Young Lee, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Craig Santos Perez, and Sun Yung Shin. Immense thanks to the editors, Leah Silvieus and Lee Herrick, for their vision and years of work collating this collection. This will be my first publication in a poetry anthology!