Kundiman Asian American Poetry Retreat

June 25 - 29, 2008
University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Arthur Sze & Stephen Bor

Introduction

In order to help mentor the next generation of Asian-American poets, Kundiman is sponsoring an annual Poetry Retreat at The University of Virginia. During the Retreat, nationally renowned Asian American poets will conduct workshops and provide one-on-one mentorship sessions with fellows. Readings and informal social gatherings will also be scheduled. Through this Retreat, Kundiman hopes to provide a safe and instructive environment that identifies and addresses the unique challenges faced by emerging Asian American poets. This 5-day Retreat will take place from Wednesday to Sunday. Workshops will be conducted from Thursday to Saturday. Workshops will not exceed six students.

 

Writing Workshop

A nationally renowned Asian American poet will facilitate each writing workshop. Workshops will consist of writing exercises and group discussions on fellows' poems. At each workshop, fellows will be expected to write and workshop new poems. Fellows will have the opportunity to take a workshop with every Faculty member. In order to help foster relationships between fellows themselves, each fellow will be assigned a home group, and will remain in that home group for the duration of the retreat. The Faculty will rotate in the work-shopping of each home group.

 

Mentoring: Conferring and Connections

Faculty members will schedule one-on-one conferences with participants. Prior to arriving, fellows will submit a request indicating their order of preference as to which poet they would like to meet one-on-one. Administrators will try to accommodate each applicant’s request.

 

2008 Faculty

Bei Dao’s books of poetry include Unlock (2000); At the Sky’s Edge: Poems 1991-1996 (1996), for which David Hinton won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from The Academy of American Poets; Landscape Over Zero (1995); Forms of Distance (1994); Old Snow (1991); and The August Sleepwalker (1990). His awards and honors include the Aragana Poetry Prize from the International Festival of Poetry in Casablanca, Morocco, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has been a candidate several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was elected an honorary member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.  He co-founded the literary journal Today (Jintian) and the "Misty Poets" movement. His poem The Answer was chanted at the Tiananmen Square protests.

Tan Lin is a writer, artist, and critic. He is the author of the poetry collections Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe (Sun & Moon Press) and BlipSoak01 (atelos). His visual and video work has been exhibited at the Yale Art Museum (New Haven), the Sophienholm (Copenhagen), and the Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York City). His writing has appeared in a variety of contemporary literary and cultural journals, including Conjunctions, Purple, Black Book, and Cabinet. He is a professor of English and creative writing at New Jersey City University.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of At the Drive-In Volcano and Miracle Fruit (Tupelo Press), winner of the Tupelo Press Judge's Prize, the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in poetry, and the Global Filipino Award. Her poetry and essays have been widely anthologized and have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Black Warrior Review, FIELD, Mid-American Review and Tin House. She is associate professor of English at the State University of New York-Fredonia, where she is a recipient of the campus-wide Hagan Young Scholar Award and the SUNY Chancellor's Medal of Scholarly and Creative Activities.

For a list of previous faculty members and guest poets, click here.

 

Fees

Tuition: Free to accepted fellows through donations from foundation, corporate and government sources, and the generosity of individuals.

Room & Board: Room and Board for the retreat is $325. Requests for financial aid should be made after acceptance to the retreat. As Kundiman is a new non-profit, there is a very limited amount of financial aid available. Should financial aid be available, awards will be given on a need-based basis. Average award amount is $100.

 

Application Process

Send five to seven (5-7) paginated, stapled pages of poetry, with your name included on each page. Include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number, e-mail address and a brief paragraph describing what you would like to accomplish at the Kundiman Asian American Poetry Retreat. Include a SAS postcard if you want an application receipt. Manuscripts will not be returned. No electronic submissions, please.

Mail application to:

Kundiman
245 Eighth Avenue #151
New York, NY 10011


Submissions must be postmarked between February 1, 2008 and March 1, 2008.

Questions?
Please e-mail any questions to info@kundiman.org

 

The Kundiman Asian American Poetry Retreat is held on the beautiful grounds of The University of Virginia. For more on The University of Virginia, click here.

 

2007 Faculty: Prageeta Sharma, Patrick Rosal, Myung Mi Kim & Regie Cabico

 

Fellows participate in nightly Salon readings.

 

Mika Butterfy

 


My experience at Kundiman has emblazoned upon my heart the names and words of the friendly, talented poets I have met here this summer. I have fed on love and my poetry toolbox is fuller now. I’ve always desired connection with writers different than the population back home. I wanted to meet writers and poets of diverse cultural backgrounds whose voices sang and cried. The support and inspiration they could’ve provided me has been missing until now. Kundiman spread open its arms to me and its participants. I truly feel a part of a literary family. What a homecoming. Among the things I take home with me are Oliver de la Paz’s revision lessons, many of which I carried around like Cliff Notes; our reading salons, where my eyes shone in awe; the open forum in which we talked shop; and my interactions with living, breathing, working poets. The realization that I am one of them. The greatest gift of this week is the knowledge that I have never been alone. My literary sisters and brothers are behind me, in front of me, writing alongside me. I take so much comfort in this.

—Phayvanh Luekhamhan

 

This has been has been a successful, unforgettable, awesome, historic event that will probably take some time to process. Can’t thank you all enough for all the hard work, diligence, persistence and vision of this program. It makes me feel part of something bigger. Inspires me to do more, be better as a poet and Asian American with a community/communities that I’m accountable to in some ways. Made me feel like I had something to say and people who would hear it and help me with it. I’m amazed at the caliber and diversity of poets who were invited to participate. It’s humbling and inspiring.

—Hyoejin Yoon

 

Kundiman creates a safe space to discuss why we write and read poetry, who we are as Asian-Americans, our roles in the global family, and what values we have as human beings. The candid opening and closing circles have made me realize how important it is to be aware of my cultural identity. Additionally, before joining the Kundiman family, which grows each year as new attendees arrive, I did not feel like I belonged to a writing community. Now, my world has expanded dramatically due to the high energy and welcoming smiles of all involved, for this highly organized not-for-profit organization keeps in touch with it members throughout the year. The staff, faculty, and fellows tirelessly keep one another informed of literary events and often meet up for readings. Also, field trips, such as an ekphrastic poem adventure to The Met in New York, extend the creative support system throughout the year.

Kundiman has steadily influenced my life since I first attended the Asian American Poetry Retreat in 2005. For five summer days my adrenaline peaks and I listen with awe during nightly salon readings to the music pouring from the talent collected in a group of two dozen people. This drives me to write, to communicate something I cannot express in the language of daily conversation.

--Yim Tan Wong

 

My first workshop at Kundiman was without a doubt, the best poetry workshop I have ever had in my life.  One fellow I spoke to about this faculty member’s workshop described it as akin to “a spiritual experience.”  I left the classroom that day feeling like I had just come out of the most marvelous tornado- windblown, so alive, and in awe.  Not only did our faculty member create a narrative in which to “report back” to each others’ individual pieces and to address our various concerns, she also solidified my small group’s commitment to raise the collective writing and discussion level of our group.  I am in love with my small group!  I trust them with the baby of my words in ways that I will never be able to do with others.  I am a much better person to be in workshop with, due in large part, to those three mind-blowing hours.  I listen better. Since Kundiman, I notice that I am a more inspired and challenged writer.  I am prepared to ask harder questions of myself and my peers.  I cannot wait to see them and write with them again. 

--Doreen Wang