Events

Perspectives: Writers on Migration – What We Hunger For

On May 20, at 7:00pm we spoke with Sun Yung Shin, editor of the new anthology What We Hunger For: Refugee & Immigrant Stories About Food and Family, and Roy G. Guzmán and Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, two of the anthology’s contributors. We discussed their complicated, poignant, funny, difficult, joyful, and ongoing relationships to food, cooking, and eating. Reserve your copy of What We Hunger For at Moon Palace Books here. 

We were thrilled to host Sun Yung, Saymoukda, and Roy! If you couldn’t join us, you can watch a recording of the event here!

 

We also invite you to join us in making “Lao Beef Jerky” from Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay’s piece “The Summer of Lao Beef Jerky at Rivoli.” Find the recipe here – ingredients can be found at Seward Community Co-op!

 

신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin was born in Seoul, Korea, during 박 정 희 Park Chung-hee’s military dictatorship, and grew up in the Chicago area. She is the editor of the new collection: What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories About Food and Family and the best-selling anthology A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota. She is the author of poetry collections The Wet Hex (2022), Unbearable Splendor (finalist for the 2017 PEN USA Literary Award for Poetry, winner of the 2016 Minnesota Book Award for poetry); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (winner of the 2007 Asian American Literary Award for poetry), co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, and author of bilingual illustrated book for children Cooper’s Lesson and the coauthor with John Coy, Shannon Gibney, and Diane Wilson of Where We Come From, an illustrated book for children (2022). She is also a craniosacral therapist and lives in Minneapolis where she co-directs the community organization Poetry Asylum with poet Su Hwang. Find her jewelry at Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center.

Website: https://www.sunyungshin.com/

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Lao American poet and playwright. Her poetry appears in journals, magazines, anthologies, and more. Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Theater Mu, Lower Depth Theatre, and other venues. She is a 2020–23 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation National Playwright in Residence. 

Website: https://www.refugenius.net/

Roy G. Guzmán is the author of Catrachos (Graywolf Press, 2020) and the chapbook Restored Mural for Orlando (Queerodactyl Press, 2016). A 2019 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, they are an adjunct instructor and a PhD candidate in cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.   

Website: http://www.roygguzman.com/

 

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