NEWS

I’m honored and humbled to be facilitating this workshop for one of my favorite grassroots literary spaces, Roots. Wounds. Words. Come join me as we call in our ancestors and imagine our legacies. We will play. We will explore. We will envision all the spaces we can call home.

Writing Across Homelands:
Our concept of home may be simple and obvious or convoluted and concealed. In this workshop, we will explore our character’s sense of home, which may span continents, cultures, and generations. We will read a selection of fiction and essays to note how homes inspire our characters’ journeys and relations. Using prompts that incorporate drawing, photos, and objects in our own homes, we will explore characters, which may be ourselves, who wrestle with where they come from. Rather than critiquing, this workshop will focus on a sense of play and enable participants to have a greater understanding of how a character's sense/lack of belonging influences the journeys they want to take, the stories they want to tell, and the future homes they want to build.

Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World

I have two micro essays, “Audition” and “Alien” in this anthology. Learn more about the book and purchase a copy here!

“Survival Mechanisms”

My essay on mental health trends in my family and in South Korea is now available to read at The Offing.
Content note: suicide, child abuse

“The Ancestral Path” Writing Workshop

I led a workshop for Apogee Journal’s Writing Resistance, a workshop series that prioritizes under-served communities.

Description: When we create characters, not only do we consider their dreams and fears, but also we consider the communities and lands that permeate their identities and perspectives. In this workshop, we will explore the ways ancestors and distant homelands can hone a character’s immediate thoughts and desires. Drawing inspiration from flash fiction, personal essays, and prompts, we will consider the threads of our foremothers to develop characters’ journeys and explore the stories we want to share with our communities and with future generations. 

A Conversation with 신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin 

I interviewed poet, editor, and healer 신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin about the collection of essays she edited, What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories about Food and Family.  

Solstice MFA Program

Thank you to the Solstice MFA Program for giving me the opportunity to lead an elective and to participate in a reading!

Writing: An Advocacy Tool
While writing can be a private and individual process, it can also be a tool that forges deep interpersonal connections, spotlights communities, and challenges institutions. This elective will examine writing as a community building and advocacy tool. Through examination of existing writing communities, including workshops, publications, and online forums, we will discuss language and structures that address systemic oppression and bolster marginalized groups. Participants will reflect upon spaces and conventions that have informed their writing journeys and brainstorm ways to shift existing spaces or create new ones that subvert current hierarchies and center identity and equity.

“Family Matters” Writing Workshop

I led a writing workshop for the Kundiman community in February. Thank you to Kundiman for organizing the series and to the members who attended!

Workshop description: We are shaped by our primary interactions with those who raise us. These formative experiences with our families, whether blood-related or chosen, influence our perspective and the stories we want to tell. In this workshop, participants will read texts by Han Kang and Ocean Vuong to understand how a character’s conflict and goals can form and evolve based on familial ties. Participants will engage in writing exercises to practice character development based on family interactions.

Kundiman Retreat

I’m so thrilled to be a Kundiman Fiction Fellow, as I’ve dreamed of being in a workshop space focused on Asian American stories. The 2020 retreat has been postponed due to COVID. I hope summer 2021 will be safer for all!