Ching-In Chen Explained

Ching-In Chen is a genderqueer Chinese American poet and multi-genre writer.^[1]

They graduated from Tufts University, University of California, Riverside, and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.They are the author of recombinant,^[2] The Heart's Traffic,^[3] and to make black paper sing. Chen is also the co-editor of the anthologies The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities and Here Is a Pen: An Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets. They are a Callaloo, Kundiman, and Lambda Fellow.^[4]

Chen has taught in Sam Houston State University's English department,^[5] and currently teaches in the English and creative writing programs at the University of Washington Bothell. They presently serve as the staff advisor for Clamor, the Bothell campus's literary magazine, alongside Amaranth Borsuk.^{[6] [7]}

Career

Chen's first book, The Heart's Traffic (2009), is a "novel-in-poems" that employs multiple poetic forms, including the sestina, villanelle, haibun, and pantoum. The book focuses on the experiences of Xiaomei, a young immigrant from China to the United States.^[8]

Chen's second book, recombinant (2017), received the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry.^[9]

In 2024, Chen was selected as the city of Redmond, Washington's Poet Laureate.^[10]

Works

• to make black paper sing (speCt! books, 2019).
• recombinant (Kelsey Street Press, 2017).,
• The Heart's Traffic (Arktoi/Red Ren Press, 2009).,

co-editor

• The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities 2011; Ak Press, 2016,,
• Here Is a Pen: An Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets Achiote Press, 2009.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Visiting Writers Series: Ching-In Chen. Otis College of Art and Design. en. 2019-08-04. 2019-08-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20190804182241/https://www.otis.edu/calendar/visiting-writers-series-ching-chen. dead.
2. Web site: National Poetry Month: "to become diagram" And "island where these things (seed)" By Ching-In Chen . Houston Public Media . 12 April 2017 . University of Houston . 14 June 2018.
3. Web site: The Heart's Traffic by Ching-In Chen . BookDragon: Books for the Multi-Culti Reader . 24 September 2009 . Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
4. Web site: Ching-In Chen . Poetry Foundation--Poets . Poetry Foundation . 14 June 2018.
5. Web site: About Ching-In Chen Academy of American Poets. Poets. Academy of American. poets.org. 2019-08-04.
6. Web site: Ching-In Chen. 2019-08-04. Poetry Foundation. en. 2019-08-04.
7. Web site: Home Page . UWB Student Media . Clamor . February 24, 2021.
8. Web site: November 9, 2009 . Review: Ching-In Chen's THE HEART'S TRAFFIC – Lantern Review Blog . 2019-08-04 . en-US.
9. Web site: 30th Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced.. 5 June 2018.
10. Web site: Redmond Appoints Ching-In Chen as New Poet Laureate. 4 January 2024. en-US. 2024-03-26.