Hana and her copy of Gulf Coast!

I’m belated as usual, but I’m very happy to share that I had two poems published in the Spring 2023 issue of Agni (one of which is published online here), and one long poem, a retelling of Yé Xiàn, the origin story for Cinderella, in the Winter/Spring 2024 issue of Gulf Coast. Both of these journals are dream publications for me, so I’m really happy these poems found their homes there.

Myself and fellow inclusion interns Teri Vela, Priscilla Wathington, and Rowan Sharp.

I also completed not one, but three residencies at Warren Wilson since the first one in the US summer of 2022, and am currently working on my thesis manuscript. It’s been a life-changing experience so far, and includes some amazing DEIB work as an Inclusion Intern (pictured above). While I’m sad to step down for health reasons, I’m looking forward to producing some exciting new work as well as some critical craft lectures for my final semester.

Again, I’m late to post this, but I’m so happy to say I was able to attend this year’s Tin House Summer Workshop in person after two years of virtual conferences! Thanks to the incredible generosity of the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund, I spent one week at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, studying with the inimitable Paisley Rekdal, former Poet Laureate of Utah and all-round impressive human bean. I was also immensely grateful to meet friends old and new in an invigoratingly progressive space while learning new skills.

I was also lucky enough to begin my studies at the low-residency MFA creative writing program at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina! It’s long been a dream of mine to study at Warren Wilson, whose alumni include Victoria Chang, Reginald Dwayne Betts, and A. Van Jordan, and I was terrifically excited to finally begin in July—and at a residency to remember, no less (bears, fires, fireflies, and covid, oh my!). I’m currently moving into the second half of the semester and I’m really thrilled with my progress so far.

Speaking of long-held dreams, I recently published a poem in wildness, a UK online literary journal offshoot of Platypus Press. I’ve been reading wildness and its stunning poems about desire since I began writing poetry seriously, so it was a real delight to be published there.

I also joined Four Way Review as an associate poetry editor under the ever accomplished Sara Elkamel recently, and it’s so far been a blast! The first issue I worked on was the Summer 2022 issue, and I’m really proud of all the poets who were featured in it.

That’s all for now! More news soon!

After many pandemic delays and false starts, The Red Dust is back on (tickets here)! Reimagined as an intimate physical theatre performance alongside the original vision of music, poetry and text, the show will be performed at Ku-Ring-Gai Town Hall with elders from Chinese Australian Services Society (CASS).

Our team has changed up a little but it’s still being directed and composed by the tireless Nate Gilkes, with traditional Chinese music composition and performance by Dr Nicholas Ng, movement and choreography by Jia-wei Zhu, lighting design by Benjamin Brockman, assistant direction by Alexandra Sharps, and subtitles in Mandarin and English by the team at the Institute of Australian and Chinese Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University, headed by Professor Jing Han.

The show follows Chinese Australian teen Talia in a near future where Sydney is continuously covered by a red dust storm. Much like the Chinese term hóng chén 红尘, which refers to the world of desires and distractions, Talia is often so distracted by ‘the red dust’ of her online life that she neglects to realise her climate scientist mother has gone missing on a trip to find the last blue gum trees. Through poetry, music, dance and physical theatre, Talia is challenged with ‘seeing through the red dust’ as she embarks on a journey to the Blue Mountains to find her mother.

We just started rehearsals and I’m so excited to be working with the kids at Marian St, as well as Robyn Clark, who will play the lead role of Talia.

Where: Ku-ring-gai Town Hall, 1186 Pacific Hwy, Pymble NSW 2073, Australia

When: Wednesday 13th July 10.30am and 1.30pm, Thursday 14th July 10.30am and 1.30pm, Friday 15th July 1.30pm and 7.30pm, and Saturday 16th July 7.30pm

Who: All ages!

Cost: $20

Tickets: Here!

A bit of a belated update on a few things I’ve been up to recently!

Earlier this year I was extremely grateful to be able to attend several US conferences via the online format. The first conference I was lucky enough to attend was Tin House Summer Workshop, where along with seven other fabulous poets I was mentored by the amazing Eduardo C. Corral. While I was not able to sample Portland’s legendary food scene, I was able to attend some fantastic talks by Donika Kelly and Patricia Smith.

I was also very lucky to receive a Rona Jaffe Foundation scholarship to attend Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, which ran throughout August. There, I had the privilege of participating in the inimitable Brenda Shaughnessy and Victoria Chang’s classes, as well as hanging out with my awesome cohorts in the virtual Barn. My attendance at both Bread Loaf and Tin House were supported by a Create NSW grant.

In September I was published in the Spring 2021 edition of Meanjin which was a real treat for me — many thanks to Bronwyn Lea for ushering it through! If you have a subscription, you can read the poem here, and if not, you can read it here.

Next up after a bit of a break is attending the 2022 Palm Beach Poetry Festival as a Kundiman scholar under the guidance of Matthew Olzmann in January, followed by studying with Leila Chatti at the Tin House Winter Workshop in February. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with all these incredible poets and am looking forward to the coming year!