It’s that time of year again! AWP 2016 starts this week, and as has been our tradition in the past, we’ve put together a guide to APIA poetry-related happenings at the conference, featuring panels, readings, and offsite events that might be of interest to our readers, below. As a bonus, we’ve also created a free companion to the bookfair that you can download at the end of this post. So get out your planners and calendar apps! We hope you’ll find this information useful—but even more so, we hope you’ll enjoy getting to engage with the extraordinary wealth of events celebrating the creation, dissemination, and teaching of APIA poetry at AWP this year.
Please note: this list is by no means comprehensive. We have tried our best to curate a sampling of APIA poetry- and publishing-related items below, but we encourage our readers to check out any of the vast number of other panels, readings, and offsite events featuring individual APIA writers (including many past LR contributors) at the conference this year.
Where to Find Us
The Lantern Review team will be attending the conference this year, but unlike in previous years, we won’t be stationed at a table in the bookfair. Instead, you can find us floating around at some of the panels and readings listed below. We’ll also be selling books for Kundiman at the Literaoke offsite event on Friday night, and you can catch us at the Asian American literary caucus on Thursday evening. We’d love it if you stopped by to say “hello”!
Can’t make it out to Los Angeles for the conference but still want to be in the know? Follow us on Twitter or Instagram (@LanternReview) for live updates throughout the weekend.
Panels and Readings
Thursday, March 31st
9:00 am to 10:15 am
R115. The Active Politics of Queer/Feminist of Color and Indigenous Feminist Publishing Movements. (Lisa Moore, Felicia Montes, Audrey Castillo, Kim Tran, Casandra Lopez) | Room 408 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
R117. Welcome to the Party: Asian American Open Mics in Southern California as Sites of Resistance. (Janice Sapigao, Eddy M. Gana, Jr., Myca Tran, Stephanie Sajor, Sean Miura) | Room 409 AB, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
10:20 am to 11:45 am
R134. Creating Opportunities for Writers of Color: A Continued Urgency. (Reginald Flood, Diem Jones, Elmaz Abinader, Angie Chuang, Angela Narciso Torres) | Gold Salon 3, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor
R136. From the Margins: Literary Magazines Supporting Writers of Color. (Jyothi Natarajan, Ron Kavanaugh, Melody Nixon, Janice Sapigao) | Diamond Salon 6&7, JW Marriott LA, 3rd Floor
R148. The Asian Face of War, Gaining Perspectives from Both Sides: A Look at WWII, Vietnam, and Korea.(Gregory Dunne, Ross Cantalupo, Mong Lan, Kyoko Yoshida, Teresa Mei Chuc) | Room 408 B, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
R156. What Are You?: Mixed-Race Writers Find Voice and Community. (Aaron Samuels, Chris Terry, F. Douglas Brown, Suzie F. Garcia, Casey Rocheteau) | Room 504, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
R163. Beautifully Broken: A Multilingual Reading of Trauma-Informed Poetry. (Nancy Naomi Carlson, Alex Cigale, Alexis Levitin, Chun Ye, Aliki Barnstone) | Room 515 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
12:00 pm to 1:15 pm
R178. We Are Your Saviors: Faculty of Color Respond to the MFA vs. POC Debate. (Julie Iromuanya, DeMisty Bellinger, Randall Horton, Iyawó (Kristin) Naca, Jimin Han) | Room 405, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
4:30 pm to 5:45 pm
R284. American Tropics. (Patrick Rosal, Tiphanie Yanique, Willie Perdomo, Christina Olivares, Brandy Nalani McDougall ) | Room 501, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
R296. Concentration Camps, USA: A Critical and Artistic Retrospective of Literatures of World War II Internment and Detention. (David Mura, Garrett Hongo, Tony Ardizzone, Mariko Nagai) | Room 515 B, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
6:00 pm to 7:15 pm
R301. Asian American Caucus. (Ken Chen, Sunyoung Lee, Cathy Che) | Room 501, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Friday, April 1st
9:00 am to 10:15 am
F109. More Than Numbers: How Conscientious Poetry Editors See Beyond Quotas. (Amy King, Timothy Donnelly, Cathy Hong, Phillip B. Williams, Lynn Melnick) | Room 402 AB, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
F119. Necessary Hybridity: The Politics & Performance of Making Multigenre, Multimedia, Multiethnic Literature Visible. (Tisa Bryant, Kazim Ali, Amarnath Ravva, Micha Cardenas, Sesshu Foster) | Room 502 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
10:30 am to 11:45 am
F159. Let Us Live Loudly: A Dark Noise Reading. (Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Aaron Samuels, Fatimah Asghar) | Room 511, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
F160. Asian American Writers Reinventing Los Angeles.(Ginger Ko, Kenji Liu, Grace Shuyi Liew, Lam Pham, Chiwan Choi) | Room 512, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
12:00 pm to 1:15 pm
F193. In Their Own Words: Muslim Women Poets—a Reading and Discussion. (Deema Shehabi, Shadab Zeest Hashmi, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha) | Room 511, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm
F200. Korean Feminist Poetics and Translation. (Eunsong Kim, Johannes Goransson, Ji Yoon Lee, Don Mee Choi, Joyelle McSweeney) | Gold Salon 3, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor
F209. Writing Race: Poets on the Complexity and Contradictions of Race in America. (Richard Michelson, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Tim Liu) | Room 404 AB, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
F221. Angry Asians: A Hyphen Magazine Reading Dismantling the Model Minority Myth. (Ari Laurel, G Yamazawa, Celeste Chan, Kristina Wong) | Room 504, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
F255. Not Disappearing into Americanness: Code-Switching as Cultural Preservation Through Language Conservation. (Nayelly Barrios, Eric Nguyen, Thomas Parrie, Gabriela Ramirez-Chavez, M. Evelina Galang) | Room 503, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
6:00 pm to 7:45 pm
F300. Indigenous-Aboriginal American Writers Caucus. (Kristiana Kahakauwila, Deborah Miranda, Greg Sarris, Casandra Lopez, Odilia Galvan Rodriguez) | Room 504, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Saturday, April 2nd
9:00 am to 10:15 am
S114. Crossing Genres, Crossing Seas: Writing the South Asian Diaspora. (Rajiv Mohabir, Amarnath Ravva, Faizal Deen, Neelanjana Banerjee, Anjoli Roy) | Room 406 AB, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
S239. Inheriting the War Anthology Reading: Poetry and Prose by Descendants of Vietnam Veterans and Refugees. (Cathy Linh Che, Philip Metres, Laren McClung, Monica Sok, Nguyen Phan Que Mai) | AWP Bookfair Stage, LA Convention Center, Exhibit Hall Level One
S247. Slouching Tiger, Unsung Dragon: The Next Chapter of Asian American Writing. (Anna Ling Kaye, Ed Lin, Doretta Lau, Chiwan Choi, Paolo Javier) | Room 406 AB, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
S261. Counting Its Presence: Race and Creative Writing Syllabi. (Adam Atkinson, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Sarah Vap, Prageeta Sharma) | Room 511, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
S263. Fracture: A Reading and Discussion by Contemporary Korean American Female Poets. (Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, EJ Koh, Franny Choi, Hannah Sanghee Park, Anna Maria Hong) | Room 513, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
4:30 pm to 5:45 pm
S292. Ethnic, Gender, and LGBTQ Diversity in New Media, Hosted by Submittable. (Asta So, Karen Brophy, Jennifer 8. Lee, James Yeh, Mensah Demary) | Room 515 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Offsite Events (Official and Unofficial)
Monday, March 28th
7:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Rolling the R’s: Literary Revolutions in the Asian Pacific Diaspora (Free) | Friends of the USC Libraries Lecture Hall, Doheny Memorial Library Room 240, 3550 Trousdale Pkwy, Los Angeles
Tuesday, March 29th
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Celebrating #LitinColor at the Japanese American National Museum (Free with museum admission) | Japanese National Museum, 100 N Central Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90012
Wednesday, March 30th
11:00 pm to 4:00 pm
#LitInColor Write-A-Thon (Free; drop in or stay all day) | Ronald Tutor Campus Center, 3607 Trousdale Pky, University of Southern California
7:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Writ Large Press presents “Always in Translation: Trans Pacific Poetry and Prose” (Free) | Document Cafe, 3850 Wilshire Blvd Ste 107, Los Angeles, CA, 90010
7:30 pm
Joint Book Launch with Christine Balance and Patrick Rosal (also feat. readings by Rachelle Cruz and Jason Bayani) | Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), 3200 W Temple St, Los Angeles, California 90026
Thursday, March 31st
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Writers of Color, LGBTQ, and Disabled Writers Respond to White Privilege in Writing Programs and Publishing (Free) | The Falls Lounge, 626 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90014
7:00 pm to 9:30 pm
Across, Beyond, and Through: A Reading by TAYO Literary Magazine + The Feminist Press (Free) | Visual Communications, 120 Judge John Aiso St Los Angeles, CA 90012
Friday, April 1st
3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Forget Avant-Garde, We Hew Our Path: Writers-of-Color of the Regional West on Contemporary Craft & Entanglement Poetics (Orlando White, Samira Bashir, Karen An-hwei Lee, Angela Peñaredondo) | CIELO galleries/studios 3201 Maple Ave, Los Angeles, California 90011
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Timothy Yu, Adam Tipps Weinstein, David Buuck: BOOK PARTY at AWP OFF-SITE | Wolf & Crane, 366 E 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
9:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Kundiman & Kaya Present Literaoke (Free) | Kapistahan Grill (in Historic Filipinotown), 1925 W Temple Street, Suite 103, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Saturday, April 2nd
12:00pm to 1:15pm
All Pinay Everything: Centering Pinay Perspectives in Literary Spaces (Melissa R. Sipin, Lara Stapleton, Feliz Lucia Molina, Angela Peñaredondo, Mg Roberts) | CIELO galleries/studios 3201 Maple Ave, Los Angeles, California 90011
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
VONA/Voices & Willow Books (Free) | The Falls Lounge, 626 S Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90014
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BONUS: CLICK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD A FREE LR GUIDE TO THE AWP 2016 BOOKFAIR
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What have we missed? Please tell us in a comment below or let us know on Twitter or Facebook. We’re looking forward to traveling down to Los Angeles for the conference later this week and hope that we’ll get to see many of you there!
[Editors’ note: bookfair guide updated 3/30/16 to correct typos.]
Mg’s events:
offsite reading:
Friday, April 1 at the Poetic Research Bureau @951 Chung King Rd. Los Angeles, CA 90012
9pm: Image Text Ithaca, Kelsey St. Press & Poor Claudia
Poor Claudia (Claire Donato, Jamalieh Haley, Greg Purcell), Kelsey St. Press(Jennifer Pilch, Mg Roberts, Anna Morrison and Sueyeun Juliette Lee), Image Text Ithaca (John Keene, Catherine Taylor and Matvei Yankelevich, + Claudia Rankine video)
and
Saturday, April 2nd 1:30-2:20PM at CIELO galleries/studi 3201 Maple Ave, Los Angeles, California 90011
***in/through the line
The political discourse of race and creative writing mars today’s literary landscape. But what are the difficulties and stakes of situating one’s self as a Person of Color in an experimental context? Fellows from the writing communities of CantoMundo, Cave Canem, and Kundiman explore how marginalization and lyric–or the death of–intersect through poetic and narrative praxis to encourage writers of color to usefully fracture the status quo through erasure, sound, and phoneme.
Panelists: MG Roberts, Feliz Lucia Molina, Cynthia Cruz, Metta Sama, and Ruth Ellen Kocher
Thanks so much!
Mg
Thanks so much for this info about your events, Mg! They sound amazing, and I hope lots of people come out to support.
Hmong American Writers’ Circle presents “Pushing the Margins” Reading
Thursday, March 31, 2016
@the LA Public Library (630 W 5th St, Los Angeles, California 90071)
6pm-7:30pm
The Hmong American Writers’ Circle is proud to present “Pushing the Margins” , will be hosting a free public reading in the Mark Taper Auditorium at the Los Angeles Public Library (630 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA) on Thursday, March 31, 2016 from 6:00pm to 7:30pm.
On this night, HAWC continues to push itself and the work of HAWC beyond the margins by also celebrating the recent accomplishment of Mai Der Vang, winner of the 2016 Walt Whitman Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.
A special thank you to our friend and ally Alex Espinoza for helping us secure the venue.
Readers:
Burlee Vang
Mai Der Vang
Soul Vang
Andre Yang
Ying Thao
Anthony Cody
About the reading:
Members of the Hmong American Writers’ Circle will be reading from their bodies of literary work. With Hmong-American literature nearly non-existent in the Asian American literary canon, let alone the national landscape, HAWC continues to push forward in creating accessible spaces for Hmong American writers to share their work with the public.
About HAWC:
Founded in 2004, the Hmong American Writers’ Circle organizes literary workshops to foster creative writing in the Hmong community and in the California Central Valley. Hmong-American literature is nearly non-existent in the Asian American literary canon, let alone the national landscape. With the knowledge that no definitive accounts of Hmong literature exists, many Hmong writers often write from a place of absence while struggling to create literary traditions in a culture that could face extinction.
Thanks so much for adding this, Andre! Hope the event is a great success and that lots of people come out to hear you guys read!