May 2025: Doing Less, More
Maybe the point is to do less, more.
Dear readers,
Many of you came to this newsletter through the creative writing advice column I ran from 2020–2022. Since then, I've written a few sporadic columns on returning to a day job, giving oneself a residency, and beginning again. Of course, there's always the complete archive, which you can read through for free (the paywalled posts just require a free account).
One thing I feel sad about is how I began a podcast for The Reading but abruptly had to stop offering it because of my departure from the Substack Fellowship. Lately, I've been thinking about what it would look like to redo the podcast, which was mainly my personally reading the posts for accessibility reasons (I suppose this is apt to bring up given the recent news that Audible has just shifted to using AI narration). I might try something more than that original format. If this seems like something you'd like, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
Beyond this, though, I've been holding back from writing to this newsletter unless I had some advice to give. I'm realizing that this is a disservice to all the rest that I do have to give. So, expect some more frequent updates from me moving forward, advice or not, and no hard feelings if you'd like to unsubscribe.
A Conversation with Poet Jennifer Chang
"Friendship is, I think, a kind of utopia."
I'm absolutely thrilled for my friend Jennifer Chang, whose new book, An Authentic Life, was most recently named a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist. In February, the Adroit Journal published an interview we did together on the brilliant poems of this new book. We touch on freedom, dreams, friendship, power, and, of course, Asian American poetics.
On Writing Pain in American Poetry Review
I offered the lecture "A Formal Feeling" during my first time teaching at the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in July 2023 (psst: we have a virtual admissions open house coming up on June 8). Let me tell you, I was incredibly nervous and had no idea what to expect.
The reception for this lecture was overwhelming: the tears and conversations I had with colleagues and students afterward were incredibly moving to me. I knew right then that I needed to give this work a wider audience, and I was thrilled to have it accepted by American Poetry Review. You can now read it in print in the May/June 2025 issue. Here's a short excerpt:
Morrison’s choice to not describe, to write toward the pain in another way, offers another standard for the writing of pain. If the art is not for regurgitating the complete fact, then it can be in service of something else. And in the case when the complete fact is not available, what can art deliver? What is the point of writing it down if it cannot be described—not known, but not unknown?
Reading the Asian American West
In my other other life, I am running the Asian American Literary Archive, a pipe dream that I have somehow been going at for more than two years already. In that capacity, while attending this year's Association for Asian American Studies conference in Boston, I was fortunate enough to run into Surabhi Balachander, a scholar and Bookstagrammer who works on Asian American literature and the American West (among other things, always).
Well, it immediately occurred to me that Surabhi and my colleague at Warren Wilson, Nina McConigley, would be fantastic together in a class on the Asian American West. After I pitched this to her, Surabhi told me they were already friends!(!!).
And now, you could be one of the lucky ones to take this co-taught course with Surabhi and Nina, Reading the Asian American West.
This course samples literature in a variety of genres (short story, children's literature, poetry, memoir, graphic novel) that explores Asian American experiences across the American West. We'll consider ways Asian American authors have engaged with the rich histories and diverse geographies of the region, as well as dominant imaginaries of it (the Wild West or the rugged frontier). Authors may include Hisaye Yamamoto, Paisley Rekdal, Oliver de la Paz, Mira Jacob, and Linda Sue Park. Expect a small amount of reading in preparation for each session. During class, we'll discuss our chosen texts and the larger contexts they bring up, as well as engage in a related creative writing experiment together.
I've got more classes on Asian American studies and literature in the works with the Archive, so if this piques your interest, be sure to sign up for the Archive newsletter.
Fall Poetry Manuscript Course
As a reward for getting to the end, you're now the first to know that I'm planning on reviving the 2022 poetry manuscript course I offered with One World through the Archive this fall. It's been personally so gratifying to watch students from that course go on to publish their own chapbooks and books in the intervening years. Since I only blurb former students' work, I've been wanting to offer more public opportunities for that end of literary citizenship. Stay tuned for the official announcement.
All right. I'm hopping out of here to do my weekly meal prep. The sun here in Seattle keeps going on and off. I'm trying to take care of myself by talking more to people I love, however imperfectly. Most days, I get to look into the center of irises, and that's pretty great.
As ever,
Yanyi
