Timothy Yu is the Angry Reader of the Week at Angry Asian Man

"Put simply, Asian Americans still aren't part of the public conversation about race in America. That should make us angry, but we should also ask what else Asian American scholars, writers, and activists can do to make ourselves part of the conversation. Blogs like angry asian man have been crucial in pushing that conversation forward."

Congrats, dear Tim! You can read the full interview here. 

Split This Rock eagerly anticipates the release of Matthew Olzmann's Mezzanines

Among the many 2013 books Split This Rock eagerly anticipates are these titles:

Calling Home: Praise Songs, Incantations, Naomi Ayala (Bilingual Review Press)  
Icarus in Love, Antoinette Brim (Main Street Rag)
The Scabbard of Her Throat, Bernadette Geyer (The Word Works)
Pitch Dark Anarchy, Randall Horton (TriQuarterly/Northwestern University Press)
Render, Collin Kelley (Sibling Rivalry Press)
Hum, Jamaal May (Beatrice Hawley Award Winner, Alice James Books)
Mezzanines, Matthew Olzmann (Kundiman Poetry Prize Winner, Alice James Books)
The Light of the Storm / La luz de la tormenta, Carlos Parada Ayala (Zozobra Publishing)
Tenuous Chapel, Melissa Tuckey (ABZ Press Poetry Prize Winner)
Speaking Wiri Wiri, Dan Vera (Letras Latinas Poetry Prize Winner, Red Hen Press)

Read more at: http://blogthisrock.blogspot.com/2012/12/split-this-rock-recommended-poetry.html

Congrats, dear Matthew!

Pre-order Matthew Olzmann's book here and here.

Kundiman faculty Aimee Nezhukumatathil makes the list of fabulous non-NYC-based writers--up at the Tin House blog!

Roxane Gay rounds out a list of non-NYC based writers for the Tin House blog.

"There is a tendency to place the center of the writing universe in New York City. This is understandable—countless writers live there. Have you heard about this magical place called Brooklyn? The media certainly has. Most agents and publishers are based out of New York, there are countless reading series and other trappings of the literati. There’s a certain glamour to the city and what it means for writers. And yet. A little known fact is that there are countless writers living in the rest of the country. 

East Coast Love: 

Outside of New York City, writers live throughout the rest of New York State. There’s memoirist Daniel Nester (How to Be Inappropriate), Tina May Hall  (The Physics of Imaginary Objects), and poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, whose poetry (Lucky Fish) about identity and motherhood and the natural world are as intimate as they are intense."

Kundiman has been selected for inclusion in NYCGives municipal campaign administered by United Way

Good news! Kundiman has been selected for inclusion in the 2012-2013 NYCGives combined municipal campaign administered by United Way. This means all New York City employees can give at work to Kundiman. Please spread the word to anyone you know who works for the city and encourage them to give generously.


Also, if you haven’t yet given, please consider making as generous a contribution as possible before the year ends, so we can continue and expand our work in shaping our Asian American legacy through poetry at http://www.kundiman.org/support/. Thank you.  

And to all current donors, thank you again.

Happy Holidays!

Rachelle Cruz and Melissa Roxas with poems up at Poetas y Diwatas, guest edited by Barbara Jane Reyes. Read their work at The Bakery!

Rachelle Cruz is from Hayward, California. She is the author of the chapbook, Self-Portrait as Rumor and Blood (Dancing Girl Press,2012). Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Bone Bouquet, PANK Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, Splinter Generation, KCET’s Departures Series, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, among others. She hosts The Blood-Jet Writing Hour on Blog Talk Radio. An Emerging Voices Fellow, a Kundiman Fellow and a VONA writer, she lives and writes in Southern California.

 

My Imelda Marcos
after Margaret Rhee

O, Imelda Marcos, I wear your hair like a woven flag of sharp stars and bees. Something I can’t touch.

 

Click here to read more of Rachelle's poetry.

 

Melissa Roxas is a poet, health worker, and human rights activist. For over fifteen years she has done community and social justice work in the United States and in the Philippines. She is a co-founder of Habi Arts, a Los Angeles-based cultural organization dedicated to promoting community empowerment and social justice through the arts.

Melissa is a survivor of enforced disappearance and torture by the Philippine military. While conducting health care work in the Philippines on May 19, 2009, she was abducted at gunpoint and held in secret detention in a Philippine military camp and tortured for six days. Melissa continues to write and speak out against human rights violations and to demand justice for victims all over the world.

 

Light the Bonefire

for Raymond Manalo

Wood lights a fire within the body.

And yes,

there is ash before the burning.

 

Click here to read more of Melissa's poetry.

2013 Kundiman Retreat Application Now Available!

Fordham University, Rose Hill · New York City · June 19 - 23, 2013

In order to help mentor the next generation of Asian American poets, Kundiman sponsors an annual Poetry Retreat in partnership with Fordham University. During the Retreat, nationally renowned Asian American poets conduct workshops with fellows. Readings, writing circles and informal social gatherings are also 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 takes place from Wednesday to Sunday. Workshops will not exceed eight students.

Application Period: December 15 - February 1

Retreat Faculty: Li-Young Lee, Srikanth Reddy, and Lee Ann Roripaugh

For more information on the Asian American Poetry Retreat, visit out Retreat page.

Click here to apply!

Podcast up on The Collagist! W. Todd Kaneko pays homage to Macho Man Randy Savage as he reads from "The Dead Wrestler Elegies"

 

Congrats, dear Todd, for his podcast up at The Collagist. 


W. Todd Kaneko lives and writes in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His work has appeared in Bellingham Review, Los Angeles Review, Southeast Review, Lantern Review, NANO Fiction, the Collagist, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from Kundiman and the Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop. He teaches at Grand Valley State University. Visit him at www.toddkaneko.com.