BLOGS & VLOGS

Write Your Divorce Story and Stand Up Now

Aloha, This is me three years ago. I had boarded a plane from Hong Kong utterly shattered. In fact, I had missed my layover flight from Seoul to the US despite being right at the gate — they were calling my name over and over on the loudspeaker (I found out later) and I was on the phone completely thrashed and talking to a friend and didn’t hear anything. I had to spend the night in the airport. Everything was shut. I finally found the overnite hotel there and checked in for about 5 hours. I took this picture when

Write Your Divorce Story and Stand Up Now

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Grace Talusan

Meet April Woman. Warrior. Writer. Grace Talusan! How did you come to author your life? Being a writer is powerful. I’ve felt the energy in a room change because of something I’ve spoken aloud. I’ve had intense encounters with readers who have shown up at events so that they can tell me in person what my words meant to them. For many years, I wrote without any hope of an audience. That may sound sad, but it was clarifying. I developed

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Marie Mutsuki Mockett

Meet March Woman. Warrior. Writer. Marie Mutsuki Mockett! How did you come to author your life? Tayari Jones once challenged me to think of the kind of life I wanted to lead, and how writing could make this life happen for me. When I am feeling lost, I return to her question. I’m sure I want what everyone else wants, but I especially prize travel, exploring mysteries and appreciating beauty; these things bring me joy. I try to explore new interests and

Photo of Nana Ama Danquah in white glasses and a blue t-shirt

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Nana-Ama Danquah

Meet February’s Woman. Warrior. Writer. Nana-Ama Danquah! How did you come to author your life? I was a freelance writer for a newspaper. My editor and I would talk from time to time and somehow he would always manage to find a jewel of a story in the personal anecdotes I shared with him. He’d tell me to write it, then he’d publish it. Until one time when, after struggling to write, at his urging, about something

Photo of Christy Passion in a coat with a hand on a coffee on a table

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Christy Passion

Meet January’s Woman. Warrior. Writer. Christy Passion! How did you come to author your life? Initially, writing was a voice that bore witness. Renderings of being Native Hawaiian mix raised in a blue-collar family spoke against idyllic island life. I wanted people to see beyond tourism’s depiction of Hawai’i; to see us. I’ve been told my poetry is political. I’ve learned that any woman speaking her truth will always be political. My life moves between calamity (being

The Conversation: Activist hopes for peaceful end to 70-year conflict between North and South Korea

This episode of The Conversation was published on December 27, 2022.

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Devi S. Laskar

Meet December’s Woman. Warrior. Writer. Devi S. Laskar! How did you come to author your life? I credit my stubborn streak. I’ve been writing for a very long time. In 2010, through no fault of my own, I lost the bulk of my work. I had to start over. Although many people discouraged me from pursuing a writing life (in light of the real world problems that plagued my family and me) a few encouraged

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Sun Yung Shin

Meet November’s Woman. Warrior. Writer. Sun Yung Shin! 신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin was born in Seoul, Korea and was raised in the Chicago area. She is a poet, writer, and cultural worker. The author of six collections and children’s books and the editor of three anthologies, her most recent book is The Wet Hex (Coffee House Press). She lives in Minneapolis where she co-directs the community organization Poetry Asylum with poet Su Hwang. You can learn more at: www.sunyungshin.com How did you come

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Kate Murayama

Meet October’s Woman. Warrior. Writer. Kate Murayama! Kate Maruyama’s novel, Harrowgate was published by 47North. Her novella Family Solstice named Best Fiction Book of 2021 by Rue Morgue Magazine is out from Omnium Gatherum. Her novella Halloween Beyond: The Gentleman’s Suit is out this October from Crystal Lake, and her literary novel Alterations is upcoming from Running Wild Press. How did you come to author your life? I have always written, from novel to screenplay

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Natashia Deón

Meet September’s Woman Warrior Writer Natashia Deón! Natashia Deón is a two-time NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, a practicing criminal attorney, and author of the critically acclaimed and widely-reviewed novels, The Perishing and GRACE, named a Best Book by The New York Times and awarded Best Debut Novel by the American Library Association’s Black Caucus. A PEN America Fellow, Deón has also been awarded fellowships and residencies at Prague’s Creative Writing Program, Dickinson House in Belgium, and the

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Meet August’s Woman.Warrior. Writer. Marie Myung-Ok Lee! Marie Myung-Ok Lee is an acclaimed Korean-American author of Somebody’s Daughter and The Evening Hero—a novel that focuses on the future of medicine, immigration, and North Korea. Lee has widely published across news outlets, won fellowships to Yaddo/Macdowell, is a founder of the Asian American Writer’s Workshop, and teaches at Columbia University. How did you come to author your life? Even while growing up in a Christian household in an all-white rural

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Lisa Kwong

Meet July’s Woman. Warrior. Writer. Lisa Kwong! A native of Radford, Virginia, Lisa Kwong is AppalAsian, a member of the Affrilachian Poets, and the author of Becoming AppalAsian(Glass Lyre Press). Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets, A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia, Anthology of Appalachian Writers, and other publications. She teaches at Indiana University and Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, Indiana. To preview Kwong’s poems, check out these links: http://www.stilljournal.net/lisa-kwong-poetry.php http://www.stilljournal.net/lisa-kwong-poetry2021.php

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Kavita A. Jindal

Meet June’s Woman Warrior Writer Kavita A. Jindal.Kavita A. Jindal is an award-winning poet, novelist and essayist. Her work appears in anthologies and literary journals worldwide and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Zee TV and European radio stations. Selected poems have been translated into Arabic, German, Punjabi, Spanish, Romanian and Ukrainian. Her novel Manual For A Decent Life won the Brighthorse Prize and the Eastern Eye Award for Literature. She has published two

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Vanessa Hua

Meet May’s Woman Warrior Writer Vanessa Hua, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of A River of Stars, Deceit and Other Possibilities, and Forbidden City. A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a Steinbeck Fellowship and honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Asian American Journalists’ Association. A Bay Area native, she teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. www.vanessahua.com How

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Artress Bethany White

Meet April’s Woman Warrior Writer Artress Bethany White, a poet, essayist, and literary critic. She is the recipient of the Trio Award for her poetry collection My Afmerica (Trio House Press, 2019) and author of Survivor’s Guilt: Essays on Race and American Identity (New Rivers Press, 2020). She is associate professor of English at East Stroudsburg University and teaches poetry and nonfiction workshops for Rosemont College Summer Writer’s Retreat in Pennsylvania. How did you come to author your life? I came

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Debra Kang Dean

Meet March’s Woman Warrior Writer Debra Kang Dean! Debra Kang Dean is the author of two prize-winning chapbooks and three full-length books of poetry. Totem: America, her most recent book, was shortlisted for the 2020 Indiana Authors Award in Poetry. Long engaged with taijiquan, she is on the poetry faculty of the Sena Naslund-Karen Mann School of Writing. How did you come to author your life? Although the words “woman,” “warrior,” and “writer” separately apply

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Anjali Enjeti

February 2022’s Woman Warrior Writer is Anjali Enjeti. Anjali Enjeti is a former attorney, organizer, and journalist based near Atlanta. She is the author of Southbound: Essays on Identity, Inheritance, and Social Change, and The Parted Earth. Her writing has appeared in Oxford American, Poets & Writers, Harper’s Bazaar, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing in the MFA program at Reinhardt University and can be reached through her website, anjalienjeti.com. How did you come to author your life? Writing is not

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Grace Cho

January 2022’s Woman Warrior Writer is Grace Cho. Cho is the author of Tastes Like War (2021), a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame Secrecy and the Forgotten War(2008), which won the American Sociological Association’s Asia and Asian America Section book award in 2010. She lives in New York City with her partner, kids and chosen family, and she teaches sociology at the College of Staten Island,

Stephanie Han, Bellows Beach December 2021

2022 SOCIAL MEDIA

For 2022 I’ll be posting the majority of my content on wellness, writing, reading, and giving writer discounts/tips on Substack (so please sign up for my newsletter). I’ll post on Youtube. You will be able to see 2022 Woman Warrior Writer here, but for more content, please subscribe! I review books and consider writing for my classes — primarily Asian American and BIWOC. I cover fiction, memoir, self-help, and poetry (poetry emphasis on literacy, access, narrative).

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Toni Ann Johnson

For the final December 2021 Woman Warrior Writer I’m happy to present Toni Ann Johnson! Johnson’s short fiction has appeared in The Emerson Review, Coachella Review, Hunger Mountain, Callaloo, and elsewhere. A novel, Remedy For a Broken Angel (2014) was nominated for a 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author. A novella, Homegoing (2021) won Accent Publishing’s inaugural novella contest. A short-story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste won the

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Darien Hsu Gee

November’s Woman Warrior is Darien Hsu Gee ! Darien is the author of five novels published by Penguin Random House that have been translated into eleven languages. She is also the recipient of an IPPY award for her collection of micro essays, Allegiance (2020); a Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship for Other Small Histories (2019); and a Hawai‘i Book Publishers’ Ka Palapala Poʻokela Award of Excellence for Writing the Hawai‘i Memoir (2015). She lives with her family

Hawai’i: Getting Out of Town

I went to Pūpūkea for a few days to write. I love the cooler climate and the silence. It’s always good to get out of town. When you tell people you live in Hawai’i people immediately conjure an image of an empty beach, not Honolulu. I did some work on my manuscript (working title) BREAK: Learn Your Truth, Write Your Divorce, and Author Your Life. My book is about how to write a divorce story for

Hawai’i: Health or The Lens of Our Culture Determines Perspective

Today I listened to a podcast about proving the scientific aspects of various wellness practices and the examination of the self-help field. I was quite keen to listen to this given I appreciate all modes of inquiry. The health practice that decidedly could not register as having positive benefits was acupuncture and it was deemed to be very difficult to ascertain efficacy of studies. I haven’t made a close study of these empirical studies. Here

BREAK: Marriage and Divorce and How to View a Sculpture

How to View a Sculpture I would like to explain a few ways that we can think about the practice of observation that might help us come to terms with the way we see ourselves within the construct of marriage and divorce. Here’s the famous Venus de Milo (photo by tabitha turner) an ancient Greek sculpture displayed in the Louvre. She is a symbol of Western beauty. There are many tales surrounding her beauty and

BREAK: Reasons for Women to Write Their Divorce Story

Women are storytellers and consciously or unconsciously constantly use stories to communicate. We navigate life telling, remembering, and listening to stories. The key is to be conscious and to honor this powerful ability within ourselves. For how many thousands of years have women told stories to children before they sleep, or used stories to explain a moral rule or household habit? We know the stories of our community, and we are often entrusted, whether we

BREAK: Learning to say NO

I think the most important lesson I acquired from my divorce was learning to say NO. NO, I do not want to be respected in this way. NO, I do not have to accommodate this decision. NO, I will not do this to placate. NO, I do not want to make up for your feelings. NO, I am too tired to be cheerful. NO, I do not feel like smiling now–in particular, upon demand. NO,

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Sang Kil

I am excited to announce that October’s Woman Warrior is Sang Kil, a professor in “Justice” Studies at San Jose State University. She chairs her faculty union’s Anti-Racism, Social Justice Transformation group and fights to defund/abolish campus police as well as the racism, sexism and other systemic social injustices at SJSU. How did you come to author your life? I have been a fighter for social justice ever since I was young and my parents attempted to teach me anti-blackness living outside

BREAK: Divorce and Voice

When writers, readers, and critics speak of a writer’s voice they are referencing the writer’s chosen words that reveal the writer’s self, how she perceives and moves in the world. Voice is the writer’s soul and spirit, and how the writer brings this to the page is the writer’s voice. Being honest to our voice, to who we are, is the key task in the writing of a story, and our life’s most significant mission.

BREAK: Don’t Hold Your Breath

When you are divorcing you are scrambling to check off everything you need to do to get to the next step. You understand there’s a safe harbor out there beyond the horizon, but it’s as if you are setting off to sea with no clear map, only an idea of the destination. There are also rumors milling about that the globe is flat and you have been warned you could fall off at any time.

BREAK: Choosing a Therapist

A therapist can be an important person in your life during divorce. I’m not going to discuss why one refuses therapy. Frankly, I can’t get into that. You have to do what works for you. Therapy helped me through divorce. While I started therapy with one person at the beginning of my divorce after 1-2 meetings, I felt a little uncomfortable, plus I was moving. I decided to search around for a new one. I

BREAK: Choosing Your Divorce Lawyer

A word to those embarking on their divorce journey: a key player on your divorce team is your lawyer. Divorce is the disruption of a business agreement. A break. It is not a time to say “Oh, I don’t really care. I feel too tired to make any decisions.” Think about it: No matter how tired you got of organizing your wedding, you were able to find the energy to figure out the logistics or

The Feeling of Han Exhibit Opens September 16, 2021

I am very pleased to announce that September’s Woman Warrior is my mother Marie Ann Yoo! Her photography online exhibition The Feeling of Han: Portraits of Post- War Korea (1956-1957) opens at the Korea Society and runs from Thursday, September 16-December 16. Her artist talk video release is September 16 @11AM (HST) and will be available on the Korea society Youtube channel after that date. Click here to directly visit the online exhibition. To view the collection, use the password: Koreasociety Marie Ann Kauang-Hee Yoo was born

Hawai’i: Friendship

I spent the ages of 13-17 in boarding school at Phillips Academy Andover. I say now that the only time I wasn’t competing was when I was sleeping. Andover was about performance, excellence, and achievement within the very specific parameters of the East Coast establishment. In retrospect my journey in life has been highly influenced by the relatively short amount of time I attended that school. I lost touch with almost everyone I knew from

Hawai’i: Family

I’m starting to learn how to play Chang-gi/Jang-gi or Korean chess, or what some may call Chinese chess. I’m doing this, so that Dad and I can have some activity together. The Kid and Dad played 5-in-a-row. Dad can beat The Kid at this game. He’s also good at chess. He told me this is how he spent part of the Korean War with his brother and cousin, hiding in the attic to avoid being

Hawai’i: Beyond Van Gogh

This was a fantastic interpretation of Van Gogh’s life and work. I was thoroughly impressed by how it could engage so many people and inspire reflections about life and art. The Kid and the grandparents, my sister, we all enjoyed it. I’m thinking about how art can be used to galvanize discussion and how exclusivity is never the point of expression. The human questions of belonging and origin are crucial to all of us. Decades

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: When I Sleep

This poem When I Sleep was first published in an anthology released by the Asian American Women’s Artists Association Cheers to Muses. I believe there are still hard copies of this book available through the organization. Work exhibited or featured ranged from sculpture to prints to writing. We do not create in a vacuum; at any time there are others who are creating, making, and expressing, and it’s important to note that we are not

Hawai’i: Stars and Pines

Diamond Head Cemetery. A Cook pine from New Caledonia. Yellow stars that poured from a tree? Anyone know the name? The ground as sky. The dead slumber. Decades pass. Beloved Mother. In Loving Memory. She loved the sea. Flowerless. Forgotten. This heaven was the toil of stiff hands. The invention of paradise. Lost. Airplane-filled. A single taste. A myth cascades. Rock and soil call the return to dust. Go back to where you came from.

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: Genus Mui Wo

This is Mui Wo at night. The path up to my former home. It’s wonderfully quiet and there’s a calm truth to being outside with the frogs and the darkness in utter safety. Forgotten. Lost. Present. I always felt very out of place in Hong Kong, but I have concluded that this is the nature of the city, both historically and currently, as it is a population that has been shaped by the confluence of

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: I Never Liked Redheads

This poem appeared in the hard copy journal Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine Intercourse and Intertextuality (2019). Myself, ex, and child were in London. We stayed in Canary Wharf. Shout out to Mark Higham @theartshop360 for the image. I sat in the bathtub writing. Yes, at 3AM. I had spent the day alone pushing my child along in a stroller and went to the Tate. I can’t remember the exhibit. I remember wheeling the push

Hawai’i: Bad Tourist

Yes, and so begins my new candid show called ‘BAD TOURIST’. In this series, I will reveal and expose some of the stuff that tourists do when they come to Hawai’i that yes, deserves the title: BAD TOURIST. This is not BAD as in COOL. This is BAD as in these are examples of BAD IDEAS. You come on holiday to be safe and have fun and enjoy the beauty and outdoors. You do not

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: The Forgetting

I have posted this poem The Forgetting elsewhere. It’s never been published by a journal. It is one of the most significant poems that I have written and I stand by it as a piece of writing. It came to me quickly. I was at the Hong Kong ferry pier and had a pencil and a wrinkled piece of paper in my bag. I stopped and wrote it down leaning against a steel column breathing

Adolescence and Clothing: Inner and Outer Selves

These patched retro Levi’s jeans are from my very early adolescence, fashion-wise–from that leftover phase of hippy rebellion. As someone from the GenX cut-off year, I was influenced by this era older than myself and the era in which I lived. At boarding school, I swapped three skirts for this pair of blue jeans that has small embroidered hearts in purple and pink on the back pocket. Thanks, Mary, yes, I still have them. I

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Deesha Philyaw

It’s time for our WOMAN WARRIOR tribute post, done in the spirit of Maxine Hong Kingston. I hope that by presenting women writers, creators, and leaders here, that we can learn, better our own lives, and change our communities. Today’s WOMAN WARRIOR is award winning author of short story collection, THE SECRET LIVES OF CHUCH LADIES. Please meet Deesha Philyaw 👩🏿📚 @deeshaphilyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021

Hawai’i: Meals

Mom made this before The Kid left for the Mainland. Ribs, potato salad, cornbread, and salad. Mom makes good ribs. Koreans do ribs well–kalbi, but these were Memphis style ribs. It is hard to fathom that my parents lived in Memphis for over 30 years! They were pioneering Korean Americans integrating the US. It is often a challenge being Asian in the South where life is constructed under a polarity of Black and White. I have

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: The Rape of Pink Lily

When I lived in Luk Tei Tong, one day I looked out onto the green bog and saw this perfect lily: a Red Oriental Lily. It struck me as so strange. Someone had dumped a plant into this bog–the fallow rice fields, and it had grown. So there it was, defiant, glorious, no matter what had happened to it. It had refused to yield. People threw all kinds of stuff in the bog and there

CUT THE CORD

Cut the Cord I cut the cord of connection of belief of desire of obligation of responsibility of care. I cut the cord knowing that indifference casts myself into an unknown. I cut the cord knowing it no longer matters. I cut the cord understanding intimacy is not violent, it is knowing. I cut the cord knowing to be seen I need to see myself. I cut the cord. I cut this cord to move

Flyer for Dr. Stephanie Han and Ishle Yi Park Fireside Chat

The Poetry and Song of Ishle Yi Park

I interviewed Ishle Yi Park, the first woman to become Poet Laureate of Queens for the Council of Korean Americans and for THROB aka The Hawai’i Review of Books! Park was a Na Hoku Nominee for Female Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year in Hawai’i.

Hawai’i: How We See

There are times when my eyes are flooded with color. As I’ve mentioned before since being diagnosed with osteoperosis in December 2020, I have shifted my ideas of health. I’m trying now to think about making my body healthy from the inside out. This is also probably due to the rewiring of my body and brain after divorce. There is a keen awareness of mortality. I must drink this in and what is it? Laughing

Hawai’i: Health and Eating During COVID 19

To get The Kid through exams I said, hey let’s go to Rainbow Drive In. I’ll be honest, this is where The Kid goes post surf with Uncle N the surf instructor. Uncle N is the main reason that both myself and the Kid are still alive after a year of COVID. You’d think only one of us would have made it through. Try COVID with a very athletic 13-14 year old. Strategies included installing

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: Out of the Depths

I have written and posted about Out of the Depths in a few places. It was previously published, in a different form in Vice-Versa as a prose poem. I wrote this poem in a fit of absolute despair? I wrote it quickly. I’m reluctant to act like this was some mystical act of writing because in the end, writing is about going to the page whether you want to or not. But this was an

Write Your Divorce Story: Four Steps

There are four steps you need to take or at least strongly consider doing as you ready for divorce. Everyone is different, so understand that I am giving advice based on my personal experience and circumstances. I found there wasn’t much out there for women who were divorcing–unlike the wedding industry. So here are my four steps: Legal representation: You need a lawyer, so interview them. Shared business, financial, and legal documents: Assess what you

Hawai’i: Health and Life

Every week I hike the Kokohead Trail. This trail provides a beautiful view once you hit the top, but you are climbing steps up the entire way. Steep steps. I do it faster or slower, but mostly, I just get up there and speed is not a priority which is good because if it was, I’d never bother with anything. I’m fast small picture, but big picture, I’m kind of slow and do things at

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: An Ocean Ago

I haven’t read poetry in public over the past decade, so in March when I had the opportunity to do this with The Literary Cypher run by LP Kersey and Obsidian Pen Publishing, it was really fun! Poetry is community and the expectations around reading and writing poetry, at least for me, are much different than writing prose. I read some poetry from my manuscript Passing in the Middle Kingdom, which is, if you have

THROB: Let’s Start with Death

Dear Reader, I’m excited that a second letter from my column THE DOCTOR IS IN is up! The first one ‘Solo Writer’ explains my lens and philosophical outlook that guide my answers. THROB The Hawai’i Review of Books is a brand-new publication and I am honored to be a part of this effort. If you want to ask a question about writing, literature, craft, process, teaching or creativity –contact me by filling out the form

Gods and Pineapples: The Original 1.5 Generation Korean Americans

Gods and Pineapples. These two ideas and objects defined my family and many others for a century. This is from a decades long project of mine and so I’ll be posting on this too… You feel alone and isolated. You feel like you are doing what no Korean has ever done before. You feel trapped between cultures. You feel like your parents don’t understand you. You say, this is because I am a 1.5 Korean

Asian Americans: Education, Achievement, and Confucianism

I am writing this because I think it is important for students themselves (as well as others) who are Asian American, to potentially gain a cultural perspective on a particular philosophy that really underscores an Asian approach to education. This is Confucianism. Feel free to google as your information may be more informative than this brief post. I am presenting a surgically sliced sliver of it. Those who are experts in the field, in particular, those

Passing in the Middle Kingdom: Building the Great Wall

To continue this creative process explication of poetry and writing, I’ll be going through the poems I wrote and discussing the background a bit. This is really to show anyone interested in poetry how some poems are constructed. I’m not big on “oh it’s this magical thing…I wait and boom from the heavens, I feel words rushing through me”. If that’s you, more power to you, and that’s great. I get it. But I’m a

Writer’s Block (an excerpt from Write Your Divorce Story)

Writer’s Block When my lawyer asked me to deliver the story in a few weeks I easily agreed, but when it came time to begin I procrastinated. I told anyone who asked that I was spending all day writing, but hours would pass and all I would have were a few hastily written words and doodling. I drank lots of coffee. I tried different pastries at a new cafe down the block. I listened to

THROB The Hawai’i Review of Books: Let’s Start with Death

This is my second column for The Hawai’i Review of Books! It’s called The Doctor Is In and in this space I will answer all questions regarding writing, process, creativity, and literature. Go ahead: shoot me a question! Email me at [email protected] or go to my CONNECT page on my website.

Master Kang Rhee and Memphis

My father’s cousin was Kang Rhee, the founder of Pa Sa Ryu and the Kang Rhee studio in Memphis. Kang Rhee is known by many for having taught Elvis Presley. If you ever see a picture of Elvis with an Asian man in front of a Cadillac–that’s him! Elvis Presley gave him a Cadillac. What’s interesting about Memphis is that nearly every person has some tale about Elvis or Elvis proximity. For example, my dentist

Wearing Glasses

I try to wear my glasses as much as possible in photos to encourage girls to wear glasses. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 8 years old in the 3rd grade. I distinctly remember excitedly telling my friend that I was going to get glasses; she did not share my enthusiasm. I was so happy to get glasses! My 4th grade picture is me in gold wire frame glasses with tape. Dad did this

How I Began Passing in the Middle Kingdom

I began writing what would become “Passing in the Middle Kingdom”, an unpublished poetry manuscript I started the summer of 2008 when I moved to Mui Wo, Lantau, Hong Kong from Los Angeles. The manuscript was a finalist for the Wilder Prize and most of the pieces have been published in various drafts. It is a very clear document of the collapse of my marriage, the longing for clarity, the fatigue and joy of early

Adventures in Teaching and Girlhood

In the spirit of uploading content on a daily basis my recognition that this will take more than I had planned out, I will be excerpting my manuscript Passing in the Middle Kingdom, explicating the story behind the poem in hopes that people might be encouraged to scribble their own. I’m a believer in creating text and how this can change your life. I began writing this collection of poetry/prose, a type of hybrid work,

Learning How Korean Americans Shaped History

Last month, I presented a two-part lectures series for the Council of Korean Americans on the events and personalities crucial to shaping Korean American culture and history over the last 100+ years. I made it accessible to those who don’t know any Korean American history. I also believe the big step we must take is to understand that WE CREATE HISTORY! Record your experiences. They’re historical! Dr. Han explores the various narratives of “Korean America”,

Names and Titles

I thought it would be good for people to know the general story of why I use the title “doctor” professionally. Many people who have PhDs in literature do not go by this title. Creative writers who have PhDs don’t use it much either. To do this, I have to do a bit backtracking in terms of my educational journey. PhD Journey I started my PhD by default. I was supposed to be hired to

grateful, I am

I don’t always fill out the ole Panda Journal, but I like to kick off my day with a bit of thinking about the good stuff. I got these Panda journals for myself and The Kid. For a minute we both did them. I’d say, “Hey, let’s Panda this morning.” But now, alas, it’s just me. Anyway, I realize I had done self-talk like this on and off during my life. But what divorce taught

Woman. Warrior. Writer. Anne Liu Kellor

In the spirit of Maxine Hong Kingston, our WOMAN WARRIOR tribute presents women writers, creators, and leaders. Here we can learn, better our own lives, and change our communities. For API Month 2021 I would like you to meet Anne Liu Kellor. How did you come to author your life? The process of coming into my power is ongoing. I first learned to claim what I want when I traveled alone to China, my mother’s

Write Your Divorce Story and Stand Up Now

API Month 2021

This image in Tai Tei Tong, Mui Wo, Lantau, Hong Kong was taken in 2014 and made the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Island American Heritage Month Day-in-the-Life event that year! I had submitted it, but didn’t realize it was chosen until 2019. I thought I’d share it as it is May and APIA month! If you were a kid, the village square in Mui Wo was where it all went down. Kids chased by grandpa with

Taos Writers Conference sponsored by SOMOS July 25

I’ll be teaching at the Taos Writers’ Conference a workshop on Identity and Voice: The Narrative of Group and Self on July 25, 2021. This workshop will cover both the process and craft of writing fiction. How does an individual’s voice determine how stories are shaped, which stories are told. How do we write ourselves into being? What are the limits and possibilities of the stories of the group and the stories of the individual—how

1982. Phillips Academy Andover. Barnard College. Vincent Chin. Asian America.

Aloha…Ye Olde Blog will begin again… When I saw this #stopasianhate video I am reminded of where we are now, socially and politically as a society, but also, who I was at the time when I first became aware of how racism is systemic (Vincent Chin lived in the auto making industry area, people were anti-Asian and mired in Yellow Peril ideology about the auto industry, and so they killed him for being Japanese—he was

Title card for my CKA episode with Chang Rae Lee

Deep Diving into My Year Abroad and the Asian American Experience with Chang-Rae Lee

Source: Council of Korean Americans Youtube “Our second episode of season 3 of the Korean American Perspectives Podcast features Chang-Rae Lee, a celebrated Korean American novelist. To speak with him, we have guest host, Stephanie Han, Ph.D. who is an award-winning author, educator, and speaker. In this episode, Chang-Rae Lee and Dr. Stephanie Han take a deep dive into his latest novel, My Year Abroad. They explore the novel’s themes, its colorful characters, and adventures,

Dr. Stephanie Han holding a copy of Nahid Rachlin's Persian Girls

Monday Books No. 20: Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin

Aloha! For Monday Books I would like to recommend the classic memoir PERSIAN GIRLS by Nahid Rachlin. This memoir is an example of how lyricism and truth deliver transcendence. This is the art of literature at its best, and in its fluidity shows us how writing easily moves across genres. While categorized as memoir, the book gives reads like a novel. This is a masterful piece of writing and I highly recommend it as a

Join the Write Your Divorce Story Facebook Group

Aloha, Please share this group info with women you know. I ask you to reach out to women you know who may be needing this resource. Why? Because women RARELY ask for help. I am NOT a therapist. But I am someone who has developed a framework for understanding that has worked for me and that has helped other women. I have decided to post concepts and methods that have been very effective for women

Monday Books No. 19: A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora by Jenna Le

Aloha! It’s time for Monday books and I would like to recommend A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora by Jenna Le. This is a wonderful book of poetry full of texture, light, and feeling. Yes, this is a book that even that disinterested non-reading adolescent who sits in the back of your class and is a rather big pain in the neck most of the time, will really enjoy. Yes, Bored Teen Boy entered

Monday Books No. 18: The Master’s Keys Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House

Aloha! It’s time for Monday books and today is a special one. It’s 1/18, the day that we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and remember his legacy. Like all people in the US, my life has been shaped by Dr. MLK. My father came to the US in 1959. He was 24 years old and a medical doctor. Dad chose UC Berkeley and obtained his PhD in biophysics. He quoted Dr. King’s I Have

Problems When Interpreting Asian Philosophy: In Group and Out Group

Like many people, particularly during this COVID situation, I’ve been diving into reading and listening to podcasts that are labeled self-help. For example, I can tell you how to declutter, although my own closet is a mess, because I have listened to 30 hours of decluttering podcasts while walking or doing chores. I can tell you the reasons you accumulate clutter. I could probably give a brief lecture on it myself! I am now purging

Belief Systems: Context is Everything

Monday Books No. 17: Pachinko

Aloha! Welcome to Monday Books in 2021. I’ll be recommending Greatest Hits and more recent titles by Asian/Asian American women writers TWICE a month. To kick off 2021, I want to recommend Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Despite its length and its weighty subject matter, this is a book for everyone. It’s a book for someone who favors plot twist; it’s a book that gives a broad stroke overview of Koreans in Japan; it’s a

PBS Hawaii Get Caught Reading

Dr. Stephanie Han reads My Friend Faith 1977 from her book, Swimming in Hong Kong.

Monday Books No. 16: Pei Pei – The Monkey King

Aloha! It’s time for Monday Books and today it’s a collection of poetry–Pei Pei the Monkey King by Wawa. Wawa writes in both English and Chinese and also publishes under Lo Mei Wa. This book references the 2014 Umbrella Revolution and features poems in both English and Chinese, along with an introduction by translator/poet Henry W. Leung and an interview with Wawa. These poems are playful, exuberant, and distinctly Hong Kong in their references to

Monday Books No. 15: The Prince of Mournful Thoughts and Other Stories

Aloha! I want to recommend The Prince of Mournful Thoughts and Other Stories by Caroline Kim. This is literary fiction, and in its craft and worldmaking is literary realism at its best. The stories cover a range of times, places, and characters—but the book’s central characters are unapologetically Korean or Korean American. This is the book’s strength. I believe due to the proximity of whiteness, Asian American literature frequently navigates out of the space of

I’m in Voice and Verse Magazine, Issue 56!

I was featured in Issue 56 of Voice and Verse Magazine. Voice and Verse Magazine is out of Hong Kong, so close to my heart as it is where my son spent his early childhood. I have deep feelings for the struggles of Hong Kong’s desire to assert itself as a society in the face of China. The hegemony of the state, the desire of the individual–this is the true sorrow of modern life. The

Monday Books No. 14: Frameless Windows, Squares of Light

Aloha! Time for Monday books! Frameless Windows, Squares of Light by Cathy Song is rooted in the lyric. This work sings. Song is from Hawai’i and is of Chinese and Korean descent – one of the first to bring the words, stories, and feeling of Asian Americans to mainstream literary poetry audiences. She writes with a profound understanding of the significance of story. She has written many poetry books, beginning with Picture Bride, a Yale

Monday Books No. 13: Enter the Navel

Aloha, it’s Monday books! I want to recommend Enter the Navel: for the love of creative nonfiction by Anjoli Roy. This is a slender volume downloadable for free by Creative Commons and also available in paperback. I assigned it as a class read. This is a lively, funny, and playful fast read, elicits great discussion, and the range of material about the belly button (personal anecdotes, myth, scientific analysis) was like going down the rabbit

Monday Books No. 12: Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre (1993)

Aloha, time for Monday books! There are certain books that speak of place and time, and yet, can resonate well beyond the initial publication date. I would place Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s excellent book of poetry Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre (1993) in this category. Yamanaka says this book was “uncensored women’s voices” and this is the book’s power. Yamanaka’s writing is brutal, funny, raw, and filled with pathos, and her work never fails to engage

Monday Books No. 11: Minor Feelings

Aloha! It’s time for Monday books and I highly recommend MINOR FEELINGS by Cathy Park Hong. I have posted about this book prior, but having now witnessed the transformational discussions it inspires in my own class, I believe this book to be one of, if not the most significant piece of writing TO DATE about race and identity, and the lives of Asian American women. Essays are straightforward and the prose is intelligent, angry, vulnerable,

Here’s Something Good: Looking for a Stress-Reducer? Try Journaling (Podcast)

I chatted with Seneca Women about journaling your thoughts and feelings without judgement. Check out the November 6, 2020 episode of Here’s Something Good.

Tuesday Books No. 10: Body Papers

Aloha, it’s TUESDAY books! This will become MONDAY books as of November 2! The pick this week is THE BODY PAPERS by Grace Talusan. A first generation Filipina, Talusan is a woman of faith and intellect and heart, and the winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. This is a beautiful and honest book of personal exploration and reckoning. It is a very fast read—the prose is clear, the voice is steady

Tuesday Books No. 9: Totem: America

Aloha, time for Tuesday books! Totem: America by Debra Kang Dean, author of five collections of poetry, reminds us how poetry opens us to feelings that are often too complicated to express and gives us the words we need to heal and live. Born in Hawai’i and of Korean and Okinawan ancestry, Dean is a serious practitioner of taiji, a master of lyricism, and writes of grief, connection, color and story. She guides the reader

Tuesday Books No. 8: The Birth of Korean Cool

Aloha, time for Tuesday books! The Birth of Korean Cool (How One Nation is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture) by EunyHong is a funny exuberant read and will inform people about the basic hows and whys of Korean culture and the machinations of global K-pop culture. I believe that this book is highly relevantgiven the anti-Asian sentiment due to COVID, the Black/Asian dynamic in the US, and the truth of polyculturalism. K-pop embodies an

Tuesday Books No. 7: The Magical Language of Others By E.J. Koh

Aloha! Time for Tuesday books! E.J. Koh’s The Magical Language of Others! Koh’s memoir will resonate for those caught between time and place, who seek an understanding between generations, and who look to words for answers. This book exposes the realities of economic global work, Confucian expectations translated into modern lives, and the brutality of people living out their ambitions. It paints a poignant and raw picture of how we try to manifest a certain

Tuesday Books No. 6: I-Hotel

It’s Tuesday! Time for a book recommendation. I deem I-Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita as the one novel to read if you want to understand the foundation of Asian America—its culture and art, its politics and aspirations. This book pushes aesthetic boundaries as seen in form, and it innovates in its delivery on every level. I would make this required reading for Asian American Studies and stick this on a university level American Literature syllabus.

Tuesday Books No. 5: Portable Curiosities stories by Julie Koh

It’s time for Tuesday Books! I will be posting books written by Asian women, primarily those written in English, although I may also feature translated works. If you want to be featured, lmk and contact me through the ABOUT page or email. I am choosing books new or old that I believe to be relevant. Scroll back and you can see, but I will be also updating the website so you can see earlier selections.

Three Poems in Cultural Weekly and On Art…

I was happy that three poems were published in Cultural Weekly. This is a great literary journal out of LA — vibrant and energetic. I like it because there are a range of poems and also, I respect the work of Chiwan Choi, a fellow Korean American writer. He has a good sense of humor and is fiercely dedicated to creative expression. People who spend their lives writing, editing, artmaking, and fostering communities and ideas

Tuesday Books No.4: In the Company of Strangers by Michelle Skinner

In the Company of Strangers is a fine collection of short fiction. I’m highlighting it because I believe it to be strangely overlooked — and it shouldn’t be. Writing from the Overseas Filipino diaspora is complex and diverse. It speaks to the wildly disparate realities of a people who continue to carve out a place in the global consciousness and imagination. Skinner tells stories about a range of characters and time periods, and she does

Tuesday Books No. 3: Hooping

Tammy Ho Lai-Ming’s Hula Hooping was 15 years from inception to publication. The writing has a liveliness and precision that is exuberant and without pretense. Word-play is that—play and fun! She invites the reader in with lyricism and wit. This is the kind of poetry I like to read because if I can’t move into the poem fairly quickly, I won’t hang out til the end. I want to hang out and read this book

Tuesday Books No. 2: A Cab Called Reliable

This book A Cab Called Reliable by Patti Kim is an Asian American/Korean American literary classic and should be on every reading list for Asian American literature. This book was written decades before its time and Kim writes with authority, lyricism and fluidity. There is a complicated protagonist and the book reveals the raw truths of childhood and immigration. This story is about the dark side of Confucianism, how we are imprisoned by family and

Tuesday Books No. 1: Why Karen Carpenter Matters

This is a great book. I bought it several months ago and started reading it. The author reveals to us the relevance of Karen Carpenter to American pop, but also references her own life. This is an academic memoir free of jargon, written in fluid prose. Too often researchers are captive to the often unbearable unreadable lexicon of theory. Academics must use this and deftly to legitimize ideas that are new—and fields that are stigmatized

VALID: A Medium Series By Stephanie Han

This is a MEDIUM series based on my current work-in-progress, a memoir (working title: VALID) that is based on my years at Phillips Academy Andover. I will be adding to this series on a weekly basis. It will include my memories, thoughts, ideas, and theories about education, knowledge, identity, and creative expression. Series written by Dr. Stephanie Han – medium

IGNITE, Studying Korean American Literature with the Council of Korean Americans

I was really excited to be a part of the Council of Korean Americans summer fellowship program IGNITE. I delivered lectures on Korean American literature and identity, and narrative writing workshops on family and gender. This is a fantastic program for Korean Americans interested in understanding their roles and dreams within the United States and beyond. Many different questions and ideas were raised. For me personally, as a 3rd/4th generation American, this was a great experience

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