Here's where you'll find Kundiman during AWP 2016,
inside and outside the Convention Center!
MARCH 29: CELEBRATING #LITINCOLOR
Tuesday, March 29, 7:00pm
Tateuchi Democracy Forum
Japanese American National Museum
100 N Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012
#LITinCOLOR celebrates the invention and imagination of writers of color who seek to represent realities that lie outside of the mainstream imagination, be it the lasting impact of American concentration camps or the navigation of racially profiled notions of sexuality. Poets and novelists from various communities and generations will come together to honor the ways in which writers of color have changed how we think, feel, and live.
Featured writers will include, April Naoko Heck, author of the poetry collection A Nuclear Family; Naomi Hirahara, author of the forthcoming Sayonara Slam; Traci Kato-Kiriyama, founder of Tuesday Night Project; Leza Lowitz, translator of Ayukawa Nobua’s America & Other Poems; Japanese/Kiwi singer songwriter Kat McDowell, and David Mura, poet and author ofThe Last Incantations and Turning Japanese; and Gene Oishi, the renowned Nisei journalist who published his first novel, Fox Drum Bebop, when he was in his eighties. Fox Drum Bebop is the winner of the 2016 Association of Asian American Studies Award for Best Book in Prose.
Free and open to the public.
APRIL 1: NATIONAL CONVENING OF POETRY PRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS
Friday, April 1, 12–2:45 PM
Room 514
LA Convention Center
Building from a landmark meeting at the Lannan Foundation, Kundiman joins a National Convening of Poetry Presenting Organizations to discuss this critical moment in the growth of poetry's presence in the popular consciousness and how organizations can build and sustain relationships in order to effectively respond.
These groups include: Academy of American Poets; Cave Canem Foundation; Dodge Poetry Festival; Kundiman; Letras Latinas at Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies; Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center; Mass Poetry/Massachusetts Poetry Festival; National Student Poets Program/Alliance for Young Artists and Writers; O, Miami Poetry Festival; Poets House; Poetry Center at San Francisco State University; Poetry Foundation; Poetry Society of America; Split This Rock; University of Arizona Poetry Center; and the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State.
MARCH 31: ASIAN AMERICAN CAUCUS
Thursday, March 31, 6–7:15pm
Room 501
LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
What literary resources are available for Asian American writers? What does it mean to be an Asian writer in the 21st century? This first Asian American caucus is not a panel or a reading, but an open town-hall-style hang out and community space. If you’re an Asian American writer, come meet other Asian American writers and discuss fellowships, publication opportunities, and resources available for Asian American writers. Organized by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Kaya, and Kundiman.
Ken Chen is the executive director of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and a recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for his poetry collection Juvenilia, which was selected by Louise Glück. He is one of the founders of CultureStrike, an arts organization dedicated to migrant justice.
Sunyoung Lee is the publisher and editor of Kaya Press, an independent, award-winning, nonprofit publisher of cutting-edge literature from the Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas. She has been with Kaya Press since 1994.
Cathy Linh Che is the author of Split, winner of the Norma Farber First Book Award and the Kundiman Poetry Prize. She received her MFA from New York University and is the recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown, Hedgebrook, Poets & Writers, and Poets House.
MARCH 30–APRIL 2: BOOKFAIR
Kundiman will be at Booth 1154 at the AWP Bookfair throughout the conference. We'll have books, stickers, and a brand new tote bag. Grab some merch, say 'hi' to old friends, and hang out!
April 1: Literaoke
Friday, April 1, 9–11pm
Kapistahan Grill in Historic Filipinotown
1925 W Temple Street, Suite 103
Los Angeles CA 90026
Come hear a marathon lineup of stellar poets and writers sing a few lines of their favorite songs then launch into a reading of their work.
Kapistahan Grill hosts a regular open mic, Sunday Jump, and features traditional Filipino food and beers. It's a short drive from the LA Convention Center.
Vidhu Aggarwal, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Sam Chanse, Leticia Hernandez, Ashaki M. Jackson, Janine Joseph, Teka Lark, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Ed Lin, R. Zamora Linmark, Kenji Liu, Rajiv Mohabir, Angela Peñarendondo, Chris Terry, Wally Rudolph, Timothy Yu, Javier Zamora
April 2: Featured Reading with Peter Ho Davies, Joyce Carol Oates, and Roxana Robinson
A Reading and Conversation, Sponsored by the Author's Guild, Ecco, and Kundiman
Saturday, April 2, 8:30–10pm
Concourse Hall
LA Convention Center, Exhibit Hall Level One
Peter Ho Davies is the author of the novel The Welsh Girl, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and two story collections, The Ugliest House in the World and Equal Love. Joyce Carol Oates has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including We Were the Mulvaneys; Blonde, which was nominated for the National Book Award; and the New York Times bestseller The Accursed. Roxana Robinson is the author of Sparta, four earlier novels including Cost, three story collections, and the biography Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life. Four of these were New York Times notable books. Robinson has received fellowships from the NEA, the MacDowell Colony, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and is President of the Authors Guild.