Announcing Our 2019 Mentorship Lab Fellows and Finalists!

We are thrilled to announce the Mentorship Fellows & Finalists for our 2019 Mentorship Lab! We received so many incredible applications from poets and writers for this program, which shows us just how much of a need there is for both mentorship and community within the field of emerging Asian American literature. We're so grateful to everyone who applied and shared their work with us.

Congratulations to our 2019 Mentorship Fellows:

• Pik-Shuen Fung, Creative Nonfiction Fellow
• Julie Ae Kim, Creative Nonfiction Fellow
• Danielle Ola, Creative Nonfiction Fellow
• Divya Nair, Fiction Fellow
• Kimarlee Nguyen, Fiction Fellow
• Shrima Pandey, Fiction Fellow
• June Daowen Lei, Poetry Fellow
• Ananya Kanai Shah, Poetry Fellow
• Paul Aster-Stone Tsao, Poetry Fellow

We'd also like to congratulate the finalists of the Mentorship Lab.

Creative Nonfiction Finalists:

• Hannah Bae
• Julia Flasphaler
• Yasmin Majeed
• Shivani Radhakrishnan
• Rajat Singh

Fiction Finalists:

• Julia Chen
• Vivek Gowda
• Christie Louie
• Aarti Monteiro
• Tiffani Ren

Poetry Finalists:

• Kiran Bath
• Irene Hsu
• Laimah Osman
• Ayesha Raees
• Mary Sun

You can learn more about our 2019 Mentorship Lab here. We're grateful to the Jerome Foundation, whose support made this program possible.

Kundiman's Queer Scholarship Fund!

This June, Kundiman is celebrating pride month by building the Queer Scholarship Fund, a need-based scholarship fund for queer writers to participate in Kundiman programming. We’re proud to uplift the work of queer Kundiman fellows and continue to foster queer Asian American voices.

After attending the 2014 Summer Retreat, Hieu Minh Nguyen wrote:

“Before Kundiman, I wasn't entirely sure what I meant when I used the word “community,” or at least I didn't know what that word could mean. The Kundiman fellows, faculty, and staff granted me permission to be an Asian American poet, even though I'm still figuring out what that means. Here, you are allowed to hold space. Here, you don't have to explain your existence. I believe, as Asian Americans, loneliness is a language we are all fluent in. I'm not sure I believe in fate. I'm not sure I believe that some greater force brought us together, but I do remember standing in the corner of the room, on that last night of the retreat, watching all the fellows laugh and sing and share stories, thinking to myself, This all must be impossible, right?”

This year we need your help to raise $6,000 to seed the fund and support two queer fellows to attend our flagship retreat for the next two years. With your support, we will be able to provide necessary scholarships to queer writers in need and continue to push Asian American writing to the forefront.

Give to the Queer Scholarship Fund today by clicking here!

Once there, select the Queer Scholarship Fund campaign and the amount that feels right to you. We are truly grateful for your generosity and all that we have accomplished together. It is through you that Kundiman can continue to foster an empowering space for all.

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Thank You to our amazing QSF Donors!

Nawaaz Ahmed ~ Kazim Ali ~ Hossannah Asuncion ~ Jennifer Benka

Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello ~ Danielle Buckingham ~ ND Chan ~ Cathy Linh Che

Chen Chen ~ Ching-In Chen ~ Esther Choi ~ Kat Chow ~ Oliver de la Paz ~ Christopher Eng

Jessica Hagedorn ~ V. Hansmann ~ Gabrielle Hogan ~ Janine Joseph ~ Adrian Khactu

Mimi Khuc ~ Dan Lau ~ Katherine Lee ~ Joseph Legaspi ~ Muriel Leung

Lillian Li ~ Jane Lin ~ Rona Luo ~ Jennifer Medway ~ Vikas Menon

Timothy Moore ~ Tiana Nobile ~ Michelle Peñaloza ~ Tony Pham ~ Karen Pittelman

Jackie Quan & Patrick Lin ~ Jake Ricafrente ~ JD Scott ~ Ricco Siasoco ~ Leah Silvieus

Gail Wronsky ~ Debbie Yee

Kundiman's May 2019 Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

In honor of Asian Pacific American Month, we brought back our Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for Asian American Literature! In collaboration with our friends at Wikimedia NYC and The Ace Hotel New York, Kundiman held its third Edit-a-Thon on May 5th, 2019 in the Boardroom of The Ace Hotel New York.

Like in previous sessions, we focused on adding pages related to Asian American literature and literary organizations. Wikimedia NYC President Megan Wacha led attendees in a Wikipedia training, since many in the room had never used Wikipedia in that capacity before, and then we were off into making edits.

Overall, we created 7 new articles, edited 25 existing articles, and added 12,300 words to Wikipedia in just four hours!

Some of the pages that we added to Wikipedia were on RAWI: The Radius of Arab American Writers, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Yanyi, Frances Chung, Joseph O. Legaspi, and more. We are thrilled that these writers and organizations are even more visible online. Thank you to everyone who attended!

You can learn more about Wikimedia NYC and their upcoming Edit-a-Thons here.

Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for Asian American Literature in NYC!

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we're organizing another Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for Asian American Literature! On Sunday, May 5th, at the Ace Hotel New York, we're gathering our community to edit and create Wikipedia pages related to Asian American literature. Our goal is to bolster the visibility of Asian American writers and literary organizations by adding details, pages, and pictures, and to make this information accessible to all. Let's take Wikipedia back together! At last year's Edit-a-Thons, we added over 20,000 words about Asian American writers––click here for a recap.

This event is presented by Kundiman and Wikimedia NYC. Join us at the Ace Hotel New York's Boardroom on Sunday, May 5th from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM! Training will be provided by Wikimedia NYC, and no previous Wikipedia editing experience is necessary. Please bring your own laptop! RSVP here.

Personal Essay Intensive with Larissa Pham

Larissa Pham will lead the next installment in our series of Creative Nonfiction Intensives, which will focus on the Personal Essay! Across two days, students will practice writing from one's life, as well as conducting research to strengthen themes within a piece. The Personal Essay Intensive will be limited to 15 participants and will be held at The Ace Hotel New York’s Boardroom. You can register here. Thank you to The Ace Hotel New York for their support of this event!