Ching-In Chen

Ching-In Chen is a genderqueer Chinese American writer, community organizer and teacher. They are author of THE HEART'S TRAFFIC: A NOVEL IN POEMS (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press) and RECOMBINANT (Kelsey Street Press, 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry) as well as CHAPBOOKS TO MAKE BLACK PAPER SING (speCt! Books) and KUNDIMAN FOR KIN :: INFORMATION RETRIEVAL FOR MONSTERS (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, Leslie Scalapino Finalist). Chen is co-editor of THE REVOLUTION STARTS AT HOME: CONFRONTINE INTIMATE VIOLENCE WITHIN ACTIVIST COMMUNITIES (South End Press, 1st edition; AK Press, 2nd edition), a Massage Parlor Outreach Project core member, a Kelsey Street Press collective member and an Airlie Press editor. They received fellowships from Kundiman, Lambda, Watering Hole, Can Serrat, Imagining America, Jack Straw Cultural Center and the Intercultural Leadership Institute as well as the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers. They are collaborating with Cassie Mira and others on Breathing in a Time of Disaster, a performance, installation and speculative writing project exploring breath through meditation, health and environmental justice. They teach in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and MFA program in Creative Writing and Poetics at University of Washington Bothell. They currently serve as co-lead of the Pacific Northwest chapter of Kundiman, on the Governing Council of the Cultural Space Agency and the board of Seattle City of Literature and as Writer in Residence at Hugo House and the Poet Laureate of the city of Redmond, Washington. www.chinginchen.com

POETRY

To fold confession:

By CHING-IN CHEN

“when yr immigrant alters / a body / we did not make or exit”
Trans Issue 2015