announcement

DEADLINE EXTENDED! Submit to the 2013 Kundiman Poetry Prize!

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The deadline to submit your manuscript has been  EXTENDED to March 15, 2013! 

The Kundiman Poetry Prize is dedicated to publishing exceptional work by Asian American poets.  

Winner receives $1,000, book publication with Alice James Books and a New York City feature reading.

Alice James Books is a cooperative poetry press with a mission is to seek out and publish the best contemporary poetry by both established and beginning poets, with particular emphasis on involving poets in the publishing process.

For guidelines, please visit http://www.kundiman.org/prize/

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Check out our exciting 10 Year Anniversary events at this year's AWP in Boston!

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Kundiman is an official Literary Sponsor of the 2013 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference

Anniversary Celebration

Thursday, March 7, 5:30 - 8:00 pm, Pucker Gallery, 171 Newbury Street Boston, MA
By Invitation Only

Panels

The New Workshop: Literary Community through Pedagogical Innovation 
Friday, March 8, 12:00 - 1:15 pm, Room 102, Hynes Convention Center
Sponsored by Kundiman. (Sarah Gambito, Regie Cabico, Paisley Rekdal, Myung Mi Kim) Three acclaimed Asian American poets read new work and discuss how literary community and innovation in pedagogy are mutually reinforcing. How does one write toward a realizing of a literary community? These three poets, all who have served as Kundiman faculty members, offer multiple strategies on how to disrupt traditional paradigms of workshop and invite questions of identity and social community into a writer’s practice and life.
Book-signing directly after at the Harvard Bookstore booth located in Hall A at Booth #513, 515. 

Intersecting Lineages: Poets of Color Cross-Community Collaboration.
Friday, March 8, 10:30 am - 11:45 am, Room 209, Level 2, Hynes Convention Center 
(Ching-In Chen, Sherwin Bitsui, Celeste Guzman Mendoza, Hayan Charara, Kevin Simmonds) Inspired by collaboration between organizations mentoring poets of color (Cave Canem, Kundiman and Canto Mundo), poets from indigenous, African American, Arab American, Asian American and Latina communities will discuss creative exchange and solidarity amongst writers of color and their communities on this panel. Poets will read work by ancestor poets considered outside of their self-identified communities and talk about how their work benefits from this productive hybrid fertilization.

Reading

Kundiman: 10-Year Celebration of Lovesongs, Verses, and Books
Saturday, March 9, 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m, Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D 
(Joseph O. Legaspi, Cathy Linh Che, Matthew Olzmann, Brynn Saito and Sharon Suzuki-Martinez)
Since its inception nearly a decade ago, Kundiman continues to foster and champion emerging Asian American voices, resulting in multiple book, chapbook, print and online publications by Kundiman fellows. In partnership with Alice James Books, Kundiman also sponsors The Kundiman Poetry Prize, which guarantees annually a book publication by an Asian American poet. Through caring openness and poetic rigor, Kundiman has built a vital, dynamic community that is transforming the literary landscape.

Bookfair

Kundiman will be at Booth #408 at the Bookfair. Stop by and see us! 

For the most up-to-date information, click on our link: http://www.kundiman.org/awp

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!

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!

Introducing our 2013 Kundiman Poetry Retreat Faculty: Li-Young Lee, Srikanth Reddy, and Lee Ann Roripaugh

Please visit our Retreat page to learn more about this summer's Kundiman poetry retreat.

2013 Faculty

Li-Young Lee is the author of four critically acclaimed books of poetry, his most recent being Behind My Eyes (W.W. Norton, 2008). His earlier collections are Book of My Nights (BOA Editions, 2001); Rose (BOA, 1986), winner of the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award from New York University; The City in Which I Love You (BOA, 1991), the 1990 Lamont Poetry Selection; and a memoir entitled The Winged Seed: A Remembrance (Simon and Schuster, 1995), which received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and will be reissued by BOA Editions in 2012. Lee's honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Lannan Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, as well as grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 1988 he received the Writer's Award from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. He is also featured in Katja Esson's documentary, Poetry of Resilience.

 

Srikanth Reddy is the author of two books of poetry -- Facts for Visitors, which received the 2005 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry, and Voyager -- both published by the University of California Press.  His scholarly study of 20th Century American poetry, titled Changing Subjects, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011.  A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the doctoral program in English at Harvard University, Reddy has received fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the NEA, and the Creative Capital Foundation.  He is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Chicago.

 

Lee Ann Roripaugh’s most recent volume of poetry, Dandarians, is forthcoming from Milkweed Press in 2014.  Her third volume of poetry, On the Cusp of a Dangerous Year, was released by Southern Illinois University Press in 2009.  A second volume, Year of the Snake, also published by Southern Illinois University Press, was named winner of the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award in Poetry/Prose for 2004.  Her first book, Beyond Heart Mountain (Penguin Books, 1999), was a 1998 winner of the National Poetry Series, and was selected as a finalist for the 2000 Asian American Literary Awards.  The recipient of a 2003 Archibald Bush Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, she was also named the 2004 winner of the Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, the 2001 winner of the Frederick Manfred Award for Best Creative Writing awarded by the Western Literature Association, and the 1995 winner of the Randall Jarrell International Poetry Prize.  Her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.  Roripaugh is currently a Professor of English at the University of South Dakota, where she serves as Director of Creative Writing and Editor-in-Chief of South Dakota Review.

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On Dec. 3, Kundiman Faculty Patrick Rosal Closes Out Season with Angel Nafis at louderARTS Project

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From louderARTS' Facebook Page:

We are thrilled to be closing out our 2012 season with this brilliant and generous poets. Please join us for our final double feature of 2012: Patrick Rosal and Angel Nafis!

Showtime is 7:30pm. But come early for our free weekly rooftop workshop at 6pm. As always there will be two-for-one drinks all night. Cover is $6/$5 with student ID. 

And this is your last chance to get in free with a donation to hurricane relief efforts. If you donate $10 or more online and print out your receipt, we will waive your cover charge. Or come make a donation at one of our computers and we will refund what you paid at the door.

Patrick Rosal is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Boneshepherds (2011), My American Kundiman (2006), and Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive (2003). His collections have been honored with the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award, Global Filipino Literary Award and the Asian American Writers Workshop Members' Choice Award. In 2009, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to the Philippines. He is currently on the faculty of Rutgers University-Camden's MFA program.

Angel Nafis is an Ann Arbor, Michigan native and Cave Canem Fellow. Her work can be stumbled upon in FOUND Magazine’s Requiem for a Paper Bag, Decibels, GirlSpeak Webzine, The Bear Rivers Writing Conference Online Magazine, MUZZLE Magazine, and The Rattling Wall. In 2011 she represented the LouderArts poetry project at both the Women of the World Poetry Slam and the National Poetry Slam. Author of the chapbook BlackGirl Mansion (Red Beard Press, 2012), she is an Urban Word NYC Mentor and currently curates and hosts a poetry reading series in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Lee Herrick gives Kundiman a shout out on the Lantern Review blog

LR: Speaking from your perspective as a writer, editor, and professor, what are some of the most interesting trends that you’re seeing right now in contemporary Asian American poetry?

LH: I don’t know about trends, and to be honest I have never been that interested in following them—but I know what you mean here and I appreciate the chance to say what I find interesting and/or valuable in contemporary Asian American poetry. I admire the Hmong American emerging poets like Mai Der Vang and Andre Yang with roots in Fresno, the Berkeley poets like Margaret Rhee and Barbara Jane Reyes (talk about a visionary), the wonderful impact that Kundiman has had on contemporary poets, the wide-reach of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and some of the emerging Hapa voices like Matthew Olzmann. I’m also very happy to see more poets, such as Tina Chang, Sasha Pimentel Chacón, Ken Chen, and Ed Bok Lee, acknowledged with laureateships or major awards. Have you read their books? They’re extraordinary. I had the honor of reading for a national poetry contest recently, and I can also say how impressive other young writers are—two of my many favorites are Leah Silvieus and Eugenia Leigh. And I must mention the work of my fellow adopted Korean poet, Sun Yung Shin, whose groundbreaking new book is Rough, and Savage. Have you read these writers? Their work is stunning.

One “trend” I would like to see develop more is remembering, anthologizing, and respecting some of the poets whose careers were established earlier but remain vital: Amy Uyematsu, Li-Young Lee, Lawson Fusao Inada, and poets of their generation. There are many exciting new voices. But let us enlarge, expand, and remember as we progress, and not let important voices be devalued in the process.

 

Lee Herrick is the author of This Many Miles from Desire (WordTech Editions). His poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including The Bloomsbury Review, ZYZZYVA, Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley, 2nd edition, and One for the Money: The Sentence as Poetic Form, among others. Born in Daejeon, South Korea and adopted at ten months, he lives in Fresno, California and teaches at Fresno City College and in the low-residency MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College.

For the rest of the interview, go to http://www.lanternreview.com/blog/2012/11/07/a-conversation-with-lee-herrick/