As we enter Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month, I am volunteering to raise funds for an organization that has been pivotal to my work and identity as an AAPI writer and artist. Kundiman was started in 2004

Since my last blog post, I have: given birth to a child; fallen behind; confronted what was deeply hidden; surrendered to something unfathomable; shut myself into the home;

The last year and a half has submerged me in personal matters, so here are a few long overdue updates: I won an NEA fellowship! It was my first time applying; I am learning to ask for things.

I don’t know what it means that I am posting a reflection about my first book publication after the launch of my second book. My enneagram is Type 4, and one of the descriptions says that I tend to linger in “preparing” mode because I never feel ready.

I spent this winter thinking back on the troubling year–the constant shroud of anxiety and my unhealthy defense mechanisms. I want this next year to be a turn: to reclaim my daily rhythms and textures, my internal and external motionings.

It came faster than anticipated, but Bhanu Kapil chose my manuscript MOON: LETTERS, MAPS, POEMS as winner of the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize, and I am all moon/waves/more!

Delayed as ever, but I have three oceanic poems at Poetry Northwest. Unrelated: I’ve been reading very slowly and in circular motions The Gift, thinking about the deep desire to be free of ego-driven, exchange-structured interactions…