Exploring the World of Asian American Poets!
Date: Saturday, April 22, 2023
Time: 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Julia Ideson Building, Houston Public Library
Join us at the Houston Public Library! Enjoy a wonderful poetry reading featuring:
- Bao-Long Chu (top left)
- Rohan Chhetri (top right)
- Weijia Pan (bottom left)
Moderated by Houston's second Poet Laureate Robin Davidson (bottom right).
With a special reading of the poem “Homeward Bound” by Ariana Lee, 2022-2023 Houston Youth Poet Laureate, at the beginning of the event.
This performance is part of the programming around the exhibit "Our Vibrant AAPI Community: Selections from the Houston Asian American Archive" on display at the Julia Ideson Building Gallery from January 19, 2023, to June 3, 2023. It's made possible thanks to the collaborative effort of the Houston Public Library and Rice University's Houston Asian American Archive.
This event is free and open to the public. Please register here.
Meet the Poets!
Bao-Long Chu
Originally from Vietnam, Bao-Long Chu earned an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program.
His poems and essays have been published in several anthologies, including The New Anthology of American Poetry: Postmodernisms 1950-Present and From Both Sides Now: The Poetry of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath. His libretto for Houston Grand Opera's East + West initiative, Bound, premiered in 2014.
Rohan Chhetri
A Nepali Indian poet, writer and translator, currently based in Houston, TX. He is the author of Slow Startle (Winner of the Emerging Poets Prize 2015), the chapbook Jurassic Desire (Winner of the Per Diem Prize 2017) and Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful (Tupelo Press/ HarperCollinsIN, 2021).
He is a recipient of a 2021 PEN/Heim Grant for translation, his poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Revue Europe, AGNI and New England Review, and have been translated into Greek and French.
Weijia Pan
Weijia Pan is a poet and translator from Shanghai, China, and an MFA candidate at the University of Houston. His poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from AGNI, The Georgia Review, Tupelo Quarterly, 诗釱, and elsewhere.
Robin Davidson
Poet and translator, she has published two full-length poetry collections and two poetry chapbooks, has served as Houston Poet Laureate (2015-2017), and has taught literature and creative writing at the University of Houston-Downtown, where she serves as Professor Emerita of English.
Ariana Lee
Ariana Lee serves as the 2022-2023 Houston Youth Poet Laureate and is a member of Meta-Four Houston, the city’s official youth slam poetry team. Recognized by the National YoungArts Foundation, she combines her passion for arts and activism as a Youth Fellow for the International Human Rights Art Festival. She believes poetry is necessary for forward movement, and her work celebrates overlooked, undervalued, and forgotten stories.
Snapshots from Exploring the World of Asian American Poets!
