Kundiman for Kin/Information Retrieval for Monsters

by Ching-In Chen

19 pages, Chapbook

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Descended from ocean dwellers, 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, 2009) 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: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities' (South End Press, 1st edition; AK Press, 2nd edition) and currently a core member of the Massage Parlor Outreach Project as well as a Kelsey Street Press collective member. They have 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 currently 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 the MFA program in Creative Writing and Poetics at University of Washington Bothell and serve as Writer in Residence at Hugo House. www.chinginchen.com