Sunday, June 9: Warp and Weft Chapbook Launch
Date and time UPDATE: Warp and Weft Chapbook Launch has been postponed. Please consider joining the Kogawa House mailing list to stay up to date on events (http://eepurl.com/bLlNCH) and stay tuned to our social media channels for updates.
Location: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver
About this event:
Join us to celebrate the launch of a hand-sewn chapbook of new poems by Nanaimo poet Carla Stein. Crafted by editor, designer, and bookbinder Carolin Petersen of Tigerpetal Press, this chapbook will be a beautiful addition to your collection of poet’s art books.
Author: Carla Stein
Editor: Carolin Petersen
Designer and bookbinder: Carolin Petersen
Your ticket includes a signed copy of the chapbook plus refreshments.
Saturday, June 15: A Night of Asian Canadian Poetry
Date and time: Saturday, June 15 · 7 – 8:30pm
Location: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver
About this event:
This event features three of the most exciting voices in Canadian poetry. Souvankham Thammavongsa, Barbara Tran, and Chuqiao Yang will read from their collections and engage in an intimate conversation on line, language, and life. Moderated by Vinh Nguyen, writer-in-residence at Joy Kogawa House in June 2024. Books available for sale and signing.
Souvankham Thammavongsa is the author of four poetry books, and the short story collection HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE, winner of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize and 2021 Trillium Book Award, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and PEN America Open Book Award, out now with Little, Brown (U.S.), Bloomsbury (U.K.), and McClelland & Stewart (Canada).
Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, Granta, and NOON. She has also written book reviews for The New York Times, and edited the anthologies Best Canadian Poetry (2021) and The Griffin Poetry Prize (2021). Currently, she is working on her first novel. She was born in the Lao refugee camp in Nong Khai, and was raised, and educated at public schools, in Toronto.
Barbara Tran’s poetry has been published in Conjunctions, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry. Her chapbook, In the Mynah Bird’s Own Words, was the winner of the inaugural Tupelo Press chapbook award. Barbara is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, Bread Loaf Scholarship, and MacDowell Freund Fellowship.
She is a co-editor of Watermark: Vietnamese American Poetry and Prose, 25th Anniversary Edition and a co-writer of the short XR film Madame Pirate: Becoming a Legend, which was an Official Selection of SXSW and the Melbourne International Film Festival and in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Barbara’s writing is made possible through the supportive company of former shelter and rescue dogs.
Chuqiao Yang’s poems have appeared in The Unpublished City, Ricepaper, Arc Poetry Magazine, Canthius, Prism, Grain, CV2, Room, and on CBC Radio.
She was a finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and her chapbook, Reunions in the Year of the Sheep, won the bpNichol Chapbook Award. The Last to the Party is her first full-length collection. Yang lives in Ottawa.
Vinh Nguyen (he/him) is an educator and writer living in Toronto. He is co-editor of Refugee States: Critical Refugee Studies in Canada. His critical and creative writing appears in a range of venues, including Social Text, Canadian Literature, The Criterion Collection, MUBI Notebook, LitHub, Brick, The Malahat Review, PRISM international, and The New Quarterly, where he’s also a creative non-fiction editor. He’s also served as consultant on the CBC sitcom Run the Burbs and a Canadian Heritage Minutes on Vietnamese boat people.
In 2017, he was the recipient of the John C. Polanyi Prize for Literature. He’s at work on several projects: an anthology on refugee narratives, a monograph on the concept of refuge, and a memoir.
Vinh Nguyen will write in residence at Joy Kogawa House in June 2024.
Follow him on Twitter @8vinhnguyen and Instagram @cousinvinnhy.