Kundiman Asian American Poets' Retreat

Well, as you can tell, my blog is in a period of relative inconsistency -- "relative" given the fact that I had been posting daily up until the recent busy streak in my schedule. So promoting the Kundiman Asian American Poets' Retreat ain't a bad idea at this point, since it helps maintain the consistency, and more impotantly, I think highly of the organization's enterprise. You should definitely be expecting more posts from me in the coming days and weeks, though.
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Kundiman Asian American Poets’ Retreat
July 13 – 17, 2005
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Deadline for Application: Postmark March 1, 2005

For more information on Kundiman, see http://www.kundiman.org

Introduction

In order to help mentor the next generation of Asian-American poets,Kundiman is sponsoring an annual Poetry Retreat at The University ofVirginia. During the Retreat, nationally renowned Asian American poetswill conduct workshops and provide one-on-one mentorship sessions withparticipants. Readings and informal social gatherings will also bescheduled. Through this Retreat, Kundiman hopes to provide a safe andinstructive environment that identifies and addresses the uniquechallenges faced by emerging Asian American poets. This 5-day Retreat willtake place from Wednesday to Sunday. Workshops will be conducted fromThursday to Saturday. Workshops will not exceed six students.

Writing Workshop

A nationally renowned Asian American poet will facilitate each writingworkshop. Workshops will consist of writing exercises and groupdiscussions on participant poems. At each workshop, participants will beexpected to write and workshop new poems. Participants will have theopportunity to take a workshop with every Faculty member. In order to helpfoster relationships between participants themselves, each participantwill be assigned a home group, and will remain in that home group for theduration of the retreat. The Faculty will rotate in the work-shopping ofeach home group.

Mentoring: Conferring and Connections

Faculty members will schedule one-on-one conferences with participants. Prior to arriving, participants will submit a request indicating theirorder of preference as to which poet they would like to meetone-on-one. Administrators will try to accommodate each applicant’s request.

Faculty

Lawson Inada is third-generation Japanese American, born and raised inFresno, California. He has taught at Southern Oregon State College since1966. For both historical and aesthetic reasons, Lawson Inada is asignificant figure in Asian American poetry and literature. He was one ofthe co-editors of the landmark anthology, Aiiieeeee! An Anthology ofAsian-American Writers, and has participated in efforts to recover writingby earlier Japanese American authors such as Toshio Mori and John Okada.Inada’s collection Before the War: Poems as They Happened (1971) was oneof the first Asian American single-author volumes of poetry from a majorNew York publishing house. Inada won the American Book Award in 1994 forLegends from Camp and was named Oregon State Poet of the Year in 1991. Hehas received a number of poetry fellowships from the National Endowmentfor the Arts.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of "Miracle Fruit" (Tupelo Press),winner of ForeWord Magazine's Poetry Book of the Year Award, the GlobalFilipino Literary Award, and finalist for the Asian American LiteraryAward and the Glasgow Prize. She received her MFA at Ohio State Universityand was the Middlebrook Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute forCreative Writing at UW-Madison. Other awards for her writing include theBoatwright Prize from Shenandoah, The Richard Hugo Prize from PoetryNorthwest, an Associated Writing Programs Intro Award in creativenon-fiction and several nominations for the Pushcart Prize. She isAssistant Professor of English at State University of NewYork-Fredonia--right in the heart of cherry and berry country--where shelives with her mini-dachshund, Villanelle.

Patrick Rosal is the author of Uprock Headspin Scramble And Dive (PerseaBooks). His work has been published in many journals and anthologiesincluding North American Review, Columbia, The Literary Review, and TheBeacon Best 2001. He has been a featured reader at manyvenues in and out of NYC, from Boston to Daytona Beach, as well as inLondon and on the BBC radio’s “World Today.” He is currently AssistantProfessor ofEnglish at Bloomfield College.

Fees & Financial Aid

There is a scholarship fund for those who need assistance. Requests for financial aid should be made after acceptance to the retreat. To keep thecost of the retreat low, participants are not charged fees forworkshops. Room and Board for the retreat is $300.

Application Process

Send three (3) copies of five to seven (5-7) paginated, stapled pages ofpoetry, with your name included on each page. Include a cover letter withyour name, address, phone number, e-mail address and a brief paragraphdescribing what you would like to accomplish at the Kundiman AsianAmerican Poets’ Retreat. Include a SAS postcard if you want an applicationreceipt. Manuscripts will not be returned. No electronicsubmissions, please.

Mail application to:

Kundiman
245 Eighth Avenue #151
New York, NY 10011
Submissions must be postmarked by March 1, 2005