Call For Submissions: AAPI Poetry Anthology

Upcoming anthology of AAPI spoken word, slam, and poetry of oral traditions to be published in 2024.



Attention, poets! Haymarket Books invites Asian American and Pacific Islander poets, spoken word poets, slam poets, and poets who consider themselves part of various oral traditions to submit their work for an anthology of AAPI spoken word, slam, and poetry of oral traditions to be published in 2024.

This anthology (title pending) seeks to celebrate poetry from the space where Asia, the Pacific, and “America” meet. This project seeks to interrogate what we mean when we say “AAPI poetry,” lean into the complexities of solidarity-building, and highlight what connects our stories. Gathering prominent spoken word artists of the 80s and 90s with contemporary voices in literary publishing, this collection makes a case for the importance of the oral tradition in accountings of Asian/Pacific American literary histories and futures. We seek an aesthetically, demographically, and politically diverse range of poetic work, with an ultimate commitment to fighting—and imagining beyond—imperialism across our diasporas. The editorial team of this anthology are Franny Choi, Terisa Siagatonu, No'u Revilla, and Bao Phi.

You can submit up to three poems for consideration. The deadline is July 1, 2022. For further information, go here: OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

I Can't Wait To Be An Old Asian American Woman

"I will do nothing else but sit in my favorite chair and let all my migrant muscles rest."



From the icy wilds and tiny desks of Alaska... I don't know about you, but Christy NaMee Eriksen can't wait to be an old Asian American woman. The Juneau-based poet and activist gives us a gorgeous gift: her wonderful, unique last-minute submission to NPR's 2018 Tiny Desk Contest.

Recorded on frozen Auke Lake and accompanied on guitar by Avery Stewart, she lists off all the awesome things she's legitimately looking forward to being and doing when she is an old Asian American woman. It's a thank you to Asian America and a thank you to ajummas everywhere.

August is Hot Asian Man Awareness Month

Celebrate by backing the Haikus For Hotties 2018 Calendar.



Attention, please! This is a Very Important Announcement about Hot Asian Men. Did you know that August is Hot Asian Man Awareness Month? It has been declared. Not by coincidence, the annual Haikus For Hotties Calendar is back! From the makers of Haikus With Hotties and Haikus On Hotties, the 2018 calendar features twelve months of Hot Asian Men, carefully curated by our friend Ada Tseng, esteemed Professor of Hotness.

This year, they're inviting fans to participate in the fun. Every three days, during the calendar's Kickstarter campaign, they'll unveil a new photo of a 2018 calendar hottie and invite you to submit a hotness-inspired haiku. They'll publish their favorite one and give each haiku winner a free calendar.

The theme for the 2018 edition will be "Cover Men," with each photo transformed to look like the cover of a magazine -- a nod to the fact that we still rarely see Asian men rocking the covers of Hollywood magazines. It's a fun way to highlight a multitude and variety of Asian men doing cool things in the media.

Check out this behind-the-scenes video of the photo shoot with the official Haikus With Hotties ambassadors Yoshi and Peter Sudarso, and the very first female calendar hottie, Anna Akana. (The image is a parody of this Vanity Fair cover with Tom Ford, Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson.)

The Amazing Debut of Beat Box Man and Poem Woman

"How a Mother Remembers"



Behold! The debut collaboration between "Beat Box Man and Poem Woman," aka poet Christy NaMee Eriksen and her 8-year-old son Diego. Christy shares a poem entitled "How a Mother Remembers" while Diego backs her up with some sweet, sweet vocal rhythm. It's a little rough around the edges -- Diego introduces the video with the disclaimer that it's "just a test" -- but it's absolutely lovely and charming. Enjoy:

Trust the Process: An Interview Poet Bao Phi

Award-winning poet opens up about his latest collection 'Thousand Star Hotel.' By tk lê.


Photo Credit: Anna Min
Bao Phi is a performance poet and writer based in Minneapolis. His second poetry collection, Thousand Star Hotel skillfully weaves a range of topics -- police brutality, Asian American representation, masculinity, fatherhood, and his immigrant experience growing up in Minnesota, to name just a few. In this interview, Bao talks in-depth about what the process of writing this book has been for him and elaborates on some of the heavier subject matter. Also, kittens.

To Find Your Place in the World

An animated video poem by Kelly Tsai



In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is often celebrated as a national day of service, spoken word artist Kelly Tsai shares this animated video poem "To Find Your Place in the World." Animated by award-winning illustrator Ryan Hartley Smith, the piece is dedicated to the 900,000 people who have served in Americorps and the millions more who improve our communities daily through acts of service, large and small.

Check it out:

2016 Asian American Poetry Books and Chapbooks

By Bryan Thao Worra. Cross-Posted from On The Other Side Of The Eye.


Following a month of research and asking over 388 Asian American poets, scholars, publishers, and community builders familiar with the academic, small press, mainstream, and underground Asian American literary scene, over 30 books and chapbooks of Asian American poetry have been identified for publication in 2016. I've posted a public album of the covers of these books on Facebook and Flickr with author information and book information as available.

I would also note that this year has an impressive showing among the Vietnamese and Filipina poets, and it's a delight to see the Hmong and Khmer communities have works put forward this year as well. A special thanks to Victoria Chang, Alyss Dixon, Mari L'Esperance, Grace Loh Prasad, Sun Yung Shin, and Marianne Villanueva for their assistance in putting this list together with me. I‘m particularly happy to see that this year has been a good year for many poets to debut their very first book or chapbook, because it’s so important for us to get more of our poetic voices out into the world, now more than ever.

Get your hands on the Haikus On Hotties 2017 Calendar

From the Makers of
Hotties with Haikus now comes
Hotties ON Haikus.



Look, it's very simple. Hot Asian men. Poetry. Every month. People, it's the Haikus On Hotties 2017 Calendar, now available for purchase! The full-color calendar features thirteen months of attractive Asian men in various states of dress or undress, sharing a little bit of poetry with you. It makes the perfect holiday gift for your friends who need just a little more Asian American male hotness in their lives. Order now!

Created by Ada Tseng, Professor of Hotness, the non-award-winning photo and poetry series Haikus with Hotties was first launched in 2013 for Audrey Magazine, featuring attractive men answering ridiculous questions while counting syllables. Last year, the series inspired the crowd-funded 2016 Haikus With Hotties Calendar. And now, the project has morphed and returned with a twist: Haikus On Hotties.

Some of My Best Friends Are White

A Poem by Beau Sia, Banned From Facebook



The following poem was originally written by Beau Sia and posted to Facebook on July 6. Last week, given the state of things, Beau thought it would be appropriate to re-post it. But not long after posting it, Facebook took it down because the poem offended someone's sensibilities. Somebody apparently reported it, though nobody bothered to inform Beau why or how the piece was so unfit for Facebook. It was just reported and yanked.

So Beau posted it again. Within a day, not only was the poem flagged for removal again, but Beau was blocked from Facebook for a period of 24 hours, along with the warning that he could be blocked permanently if continued to violate "community standards." So Beau posted it again. But this time, he had the support of a community of Facebook friends who also started sharing the poem widely.

Because censorship sucks, and dammit, we need some poetry right now. And so, I share it with you.

Writers respond to "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?"

"Asian Americans are in the room, and although his poem wasn't meant for us, we're speaking back to it."



You may have come across writer and humorist Calvin Trillin's New Yorker poem "Have The Run Out of Provinces Yet?" in which a foodie bemoans the increasing, overwhelming presence of regional Chinese cuisine. The exasperated diner in Trillin's poem longs for the"Simple days of chow mein but no stress, / When we never were faced with the threat / Of more provinces we hadn't met."

Yes, it's satire. But as many critics of the poem have pointed out, it also reads like nostalgia for a pre-1965 era, before racist immigration quotas based on national origin were phased out. You see, America loves Chinese things. They want to consume Chinese things. They just don't want anything to do with actual Chinese people.

Trillin's poem "continues an American tradition of talking about Asia as if we Asians were not in the room," poet Timothy Yu writes in the New Republic. "It's an in-joke among white consumers of Chinese things, but actual Chinese people are at best absent from its lines, and at worst a looming peril within them. The eruption of response to the poem shows how wrong Trillin was: Asian Americans are in the room, and although his poem wasn't meant for us, we're speaking back to it."

The Asian American Writers' Workshop asked writers to submit their own takes on Trillin's poem -- to take up space in this room and speak back. They've posted fourteen different responses, like this hot bit of verse from poet Franny Choi:

Have They Run Out of White Poems Yet?

A response to Calvin Trillin's "Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?" By Timothy Yu


"The Heathen Chinee"

Have they run out of white poems yet?
No! here's one more whose words we regret.
It began with the "heathen Chinee,"
Long ago, with his tricks up his sleeve.
That "John Chinaman," here from Canton,
Fed on puppies and rats all day long.
Then Exclusion enacted its song,
Making Chinese an illegal throng.
That's when Ezra Pound put into play
The exiles and sad wives of Cathay,
The chinoiserie Marianne Moore
Put in poems for all to adore.
While the Chinese was kept far away,
He adorned the best poems of the day.
So that’s maybe where I should begin:
When my family arrived from Fujian.
The country they found was now eager
For Chinese food, but not its people.
We='re now just a dish on the menu
For gourmets to sink their teeth into.

And still each day new poems appear,
Using laughter to cover their fear.
Could the China they love for its grace
Take them into its deathly embrace?
Yes, they sometimes do miss, they confess,
This Chinese-less China, God bless!
Which would never face them with its threat
Of its uncounted billions, unmet.
So they eat their chow mein with regret.
Have they run out of white poems yet?


Timothy Yu is the author of 100 Chinese Silences and Race and the Avant-Garde. He is associate professor of English and Asian American studies and director of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


FACEBOOK

Is this guy actually sad that there's too much Chinese food?

Ridiculous New Yorker poem laments that there is more to Chinese food than chow mein.



How in the world does something like this make it into a "prestige" publication like The New Yorker? How did someone actually get paid for writing this ridiculous piece of self-centered white western indulgence?

This New Yorker piece by humorist and food writer Calvin Trillin that begins, "Have they run out of provinces yet?" is a white dude's sad lament about all the different varieties and origins of Chinese cuisine. "Too many to name." It is actually expressing anxiety that there are too many different kinds of Chinese food.

Poet Mai Der Vang wins 2016 Walt Whitman Award

Awarded by the Academy of American Poets for best debut poetry book.



Hmong American poet Mai Der Vang has been awarded the prestigious national 2016 Walt Whitman Award, which is given annually by the Academy of American Poets for an outstanding debut poetry book.

Hmong American poet Mai Der Vang wins prize for best debut

Vang will receive a $5,000 cash prize and her submitted manuscript, titled Afterland, will be published in April 2017 by Graywolf Press. In addition, she'll receive an all-expenses-paid six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in the Umbrian region of Italy.

Not Your Typical Makeup Tutorial

Spoken word video by Theanne Liu: for those who refuse to be silenced.



This video starts off like one of the ubiquitous makeup tutorials that populate YouTube... but then it becomes something different. Theanne Liu created this thoughtful spoken word piece to share about her personal experiences within Asian America -- "through learning about our history, understanding how we are racialized subjects, being in the diaspora, to dealing with various forms of racism and ethnosexualization."

Created for her Asian American Studies class on Race, Gender, and Sexuality at Northwestern University, the video is produced in the style of a makeup tutorial as a nod to the hypervisibility of Asian women on YouTube in the realm of beauty and fashion, while remaining underrepresented in other non-beauty-related video content.

Take a look:

Poet Justin Chin taken off life support after stroke

Award-winning writer was a prominent figure in the Bay Area's literary scene.



Sad news out of San Francisco. Award-winning writer and poet Justin Chin, a prominent figure in the Bay Area literary scene, was taken off life support Tuesday after suffering a massive stroke last week.

S.F. Poet Justin Chin Taken Off Life Support After a Stroke

On Friday, a neighbor discovered Chin, 46, unconscious after hearing a loud sound from his apartment. After several days in the intensive care unit, doctors said Chin was unlikely to recover, and his family requested to remove him from his ventilator, according to friends.

Born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore, Chin made his way to the United States, eventually settling in San Francisco. Chin's prolific writing -- he wrote and published seven books -- often explored his identity as a gay Asian American.

Don't Be An Activist

Fong Tran and Chaz Ashley's spoken word piece is an ode to fellow activists and agents of change.



Sacramento-based community organizer and spoken word artist Fong Tran recently released his newest spoken word video with close collaborator Chaz Ashley, entitled "Don't Be an Activist." Wait, what?

It is, in fact, a loving ode to their fellow activists and agents of change.

"This video is in honor of the people that choose to stick out by speaking up, in honor of all the folks that choose the hard path because they understand it's the right one," Fong says. "We hope you find fuel from this piece."

Check it out:

Giveaway: Win a 2016 Haikus With Hotties Calendar

A perfect holiday gift for those who need more Asian American male hotties in their lives.



Fans of hot Asian men! This one's for you. A few months ago, I posted about a Very Important Kickstarter campaign: the 2016 Haikus With Hotties Calendar project based on Audrey Magazine's non-award-winning poetry series "Haikus With Hotties," in which they asked hot Asian American men to exchange poetry with them.

Here's the Kickstarter video with Ada Tseng, Professor of Hotness, who explained the important need for this calendar:

The Real Yi-Fen Chou: What a Fake Asian Poet Taught Us about Actual Asian Poets

Guest Post by Timothy Yu


I'm on vacation! This week, I'm taking a much-needed break to recharge the batteries and get a change of scenery. To keep things going around here, I've enlisted the help of several friends of the blog to submit guest posts on various topics of their choosing. Here's one from Professor Timothy Yu.

The message landed in my inbox late on a weekend night: Have you seen this? Attached was a link to a contributor's note to The Best American Poetry 2015, an anthology edited annually by a different well-known poet. The bio was for a poet named Yi-Fen Chou, one of 75 included in this year's anthology. But Yi-Fen Chou was not Yi-Fen Chou at all:

"I am NOT a costume."

Halloween spoken word by Jason Chu



"Thug" parties with blackface costumes. "Oriental geisha" outfits and "Indian" headdresses. Halloween is no excuse for ignorance. Race is not a party. Culture is not a costume. Poet/emcee Jason Chu just dropped this spoken word piece in time for Halloween, because we all know that really awful, culturally insensitive costumes are out there and you will most certainly see them in full force this week.

Help Wo Chan and his family fight unjust deportation

Poet and his family were victims of a crooked immigration official's false document scheme.



Queer Fujianese poet, writer, and drag performer Wo Chan and his family are facing deportation in a pretty messed up situation after an immigration official issued them false naturalization documents.

Help Poet Wo Chan & His Family Fight Unjust Deportation

In 2006, Department of Homeland Security supervisor Robert Schofield was convicted of bribery and falsifying immigration documents. Of his nearly 200 victims, all were Asian. Chan's family thought they were lawfully obtaining citizenship, but DHS thinks otherwise. Starting in 2011, his family was stripped of U.S. citizenship and are now subject to deportation proceedings.

In Chan's own words: