Shin Yu Pai
Host, Ten Thousand Things
About
Shin Yu Pai [pronounced Shin Yee Pie] is the current Civic Poet for The City of Seattle (2023-24) and host of KUOW's podcast Ten Thousand Things (formerly The Blue Suit). Shin Yu is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and was shortlisted for a 2014 Stranger Genius in Literature. She is the author of eleven books of poetry, including most recently Virga (Empty Bowl, 2021). From 2015 to 2017, she served as the fourth Poet Laureate of the City of Redmond. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Atlas Obscura, NY Times, Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, Seattle Met, Zocalo Public Square, Gastronomica, City Arts, The Stranger, South Seattle Emerald, International Examiner, Ballard News-Tribune, Seattle’s Child, Seattle Globalist, and ParentMap. Shin Yu’s work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Canada. She is represented by Tyler Tsay at The Speakeasy Project.
Podcasts
Stories
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Poet Raul Sanchez on finding a voice that transcends language and borders
Raul Sanchez's poetry reflects an influence of American culture tangled with Sanchez's Mexican roots.
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Poet Michael Schmeltzer on the sensual delights of rainy days
In "Under the Umbrella...", poet Michael Schmeltzer considers the sensual delights of rain, its scents and sonic textures that enliven our environment and senses.
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Haiku comics artist David Lasky on the textures of Seattle
David Lasky combines poetry and comics in his creative practice, to craft 3-panel narrative sequential art that explores his everyday observations of living here. A practitioner and teacher of haiku comics, Lasky brings together language with simple drawings and patterns that startle the imagination.
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Poet Françoise Besnard Canter on the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest
In "Spit", Françoise Besnard Canter lingers on the detritus and decay of marine environments to return to a state of unadulterated beauty.
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Poet Tanya Holtland laments the toll of environmental apathy
In her Ballard-based poem "Golden Gardens," Tanya Holtland contemplates environmental pollution and its impacts on non-human species and future generations.
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Suzanne Bottelli's poetic moments of watery quiet
Suzanne Bottelli's poem "What the Dog Saw" is rooted in and suffused with the watery quiet that can characterize some Seattle moments, bringing some consolation to difficult days. Bottelli is the author of "The Feltville Formation." Her poems and book reviews have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Scoundrel Time, The Literary Review, Fine Madness, West Branch, and Prairie Schooner, among others. She has been a Jack Straw Writer and a finalist with Persea Books, Black Lawrence Press, and Poets@Work.
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Poet Omar Willey's 'incantation' pays tribute to ancestors of Seattle's First Nations
Born in Seattle, Omar Willey is the publisher of the online journal of arts and culture, "The Seattle Star," in which he writes about performing arts, science, experimental film, and open culture, as well as poetry.
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Remembering the intellectual clarity of the late Beth Bentley's poetry
Beth Bentley was a teacher and poet who, along with her husband — poet Nelson Bentley — left an indelible mark on Seattle's literary scene. When she died in 2021, she and her son Sean were working on her final poetry collection, titled "Missing Addresses," which is set to publish this month.
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Poet Ally Ang contemplates the delight of welcoming springtime in Seattle
"In Spring in Seattle," poet Ally Ang contemplates the unending gray Pacific Northwest skies that eventually give way to light and new growth, while practicing patience.
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Poet Melinda Mueller gives voice to Cascadian ghost forests
Melinda Mueller was a coauthor of an early list of rare, threatened, and endangered plant species of Washington State. Her scientific knowledge and deep attention to nature give voice to the ghost forests that were once verdant woodland in her poem "Larva."