Sun Yung Shin is the author of one book of prose Unbearable Splendor, two books of poetry Rough, and Savage­ and Skirt Full of Black, winner of the Asian American Literary Award for Poetry. All three books are published by Coffee House Press. She is the editor of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota from Minnesota Historical Society Press. She co-edited Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, published by South End Press, and authored Cooper's Lesson, a bilingual children’s book published by Lee and Low Books. Her poems and prose have been widely published in journals and anthologies such as Others Will Enter the Gates, Penumbrae, The Encyclopedia Project, Line Break, Transforming a Rape Culture, Riding Shotgun, To Sing Along the Way, Fiction on a Stick, Echoes Upon Echoes, Revolver, Cerise Press, Mid-American Review, Five Fingers Review, Sonora Review, Tea Party, Xcp, La Fovea, Konundrum Engine Literary Review, Drunken Boat, Controlled Burn, and elsewhere. 

Website: www.sunyungshin.com

Twitter Username: @sunyungshin

Publications

• Unbearable Splendor , Coffee House Press (October 15, 2016)
• A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota , Minnesota Historical Society Press (March 4, 2016)
• Rough, and Savage , Coffee House Press (2012)
• Skirt Full of Black , Coffee House Press (2007)
• Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption , South End Press (2006)
• Cooper's Lesson , Lee and Low Books (2004)
• The Wet Hex , Coffee House Press (April 2022)
• Where We Come From , Lerner Publishing (October 2022)
• What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories about Food and Family , Minnesota Historical Society Press (May 4, 2021)

Awards

• Asian American Literary Award
• Bush Fellowship
• Minnesota State Arts Board Grant (2)
• Emerging Writers' Grant / Loft Literary Center
• The Believer Poetry Award finalist
• Pushcart Prize nomination (2)
• Jerome Foundation Writer's Grant
• McKnight Fellowship
• The Society of Midland Authors Poetry Award(2023)

Employment

• Instructor at University of Minnesota
• Instructor at University of St. Catherine
• Teacher at Perpich Center for Arts Education
• Freelance Editor and Writer
• Co-founding Editor at WinteRed Press
• Instructor at Hamline University
• Instructor at Macalester College
• Instructor at Loft Literary Center
• Facilitator at Intermedia Arts
• Distinguished Benedict Visiting Professor at Carleton College (February 2022 - June 2022)
• Instructor at Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (January 2021 - )
• Instructor at Metro State University (January 2023 - )

Degrees

• Bachelor of Arts in English from Macalester College
• Master of Arts in Education from University of St. Thomas
• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Poetics from Naropa University (November 2017)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Children's literature , Poetry