Chen Chen Readings & Workshop
‘Chen Chen’s When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities asks how one might find humour, hope and joy amid the tensions that arise from conflicting loyalties. Queer, Asian-American and immigrant experiences collide to inform Chen’s sensual and vivid verse which attests to the surreal and dream-like nature of memory…Chen reminds us in this tender and free-wheeling debut that all relationships are “a feat of engineering”, whether with one’s country, one’s family, or oneself.’ – Mary Jean Chan, The Guardian
Chen Chen's debut collection When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, US, 2017; Bloodaxe Books, UK, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) New Writers Award, the Texas Book Award for Poetry, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The book was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and named a Stonewall Honor Book. He had previously published two chapbooks, Kissing the Sphinx (Two of Cups Press, 2016) and Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015). His work has been widely acclaimed in the US, with Poets & Writers Magazine featuring him in their Inspiration Issue as one of ‘Ten Poets Who Will Change the World’. His second collection, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, was published by Bloodaxe Books in the UK and BOA Editions in the US in 2022; his third, Quintessential Earthly Activities, is published by Bloodaxe and BOA in 2027.
The UK edition of Chen Chen's debut collection When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (Bloodaxe, 2019) was reviewed by Mary Jean Chan in The Guardian’s monthly round-up of the best recent poetry here.
FORTHCOMING READINGS
Wednesday 21st October, 12pm
StAnza: Well Versed: Chen Chen (online)
Chen Chen will be giving an online reading plus Q&A as part of Well Versed, a programme of online poetry discussions with headline festival poets and new voices, hosted in partnership with Open Book.
Each session includes a reading and discussion before a Q&A with the live online audience.
More details and booking here.
PAST EVENTS
18 October 2022
Bloodaxe online launch reading by Chen Chen, Brenda Shaughnessy and Ahren Warner
Chen Chen read from Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency at this online launch reading hosted by Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
PODCAST FEATURE
Saturday Review, BBC Radio 4, Saturday 29 June 2019, 7.15pm
Chen Chen’s UK debut When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities was the podcast choice of one of the guests on Radio 4’s Saturday Review on 29 June. Each reviewer has a podcast choice and talk about a piece of art that's caught their attention.
Cahal Dallat spoke about Chen Chen from 45.40 and said of the book that it showed ‘a wonderful imagination at work’.
Click here to listen (from 45.40). Available to download as a podcast or to listen via BBC Sounds.
[12 September 2019]
