S216. How to (Not) Write About Genocide: Reimagining Cambodian American Literature

B114, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Saturday, March 30, 2019
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

 

Departing from survival literature of the previous generation, this panel explores the growing imagination of Cambodian diaspora. Five second-generation Cambodian American poets and prose writers read from their work and discuss ways in which writers from communities with histories of genocide can resist the tokenization of trauma writing. The conversation asks how we can reimagine new radical, reparative ways to write towards a fuller collective memory.


Participants

Moderator:

Angela So holds a MFA in Fiction from the Ohio State University. Her prose has appeared in Glimmer Train, The Pinch, Day One, and the Houston Chronicle. She has received fellowships from Kundiman and Vermont Studio Center.

Monica Sok is the author of Year Zero. Her work has been recognized with a 2018 "Discovery"/Boston Review Poetry Prize. She has been awarded fellowships from Hedgebrook, Jerome Foundation, Kundiman, and NEA among others. She is a 2018–2020 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Anthony Veasna So is a writer, cartoonist, Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, and MFA candidate in Fiction at Syracuse University, where he is a University Fellow. He graduated from Stanford University with a BA in English Literature and Art Practice. His work has appeared in n+1, Hobart, and Ninth Letter.

Sokunthary Svay is a founding member of the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association, a recipient of the American Opera Projects' Composer and the Voice Fellowship for 2017–19, and the 2018 Emerging Poets Fellowship at Poets House. She is the author of Apsara in New York.

Danny Thanh Nguyen is a Lambda Literary and Kundiman Fellow. His writing has appeared in The Journal, Gulf Coast, Foglifter, New Delta Review, Entropy, and more. He is currently working on a collections of stories and a collection of personal essays.

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February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center