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.
Stories
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Poet Lorna Dee Cervantes on the literary history of The Blue Moon Tavern
Lorna Dee Cervantes celebrates the rich literary history of The Blue Moon Tavern, favorite watering hole of poets like Carolyn Kizer, Allen Ginsberg, Theodore Roethke, Richard Hugo, and Dylan Thomas in her poem "Dancing with Roethke."
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Charting change in Beacon Hill with poet Roberto Ascalon
The Bureau of Fearless Ideas (BFI) is one large classroom on the ground floor of the Yesler Terrace complex, a multi-use housing development in Beacon Hill. The walls are packed with language – words, rhymes, and creative affirmations. It's here that Roberto Ascalon, the poet in residence, is a mentor to new poets.
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Gratitude and poetic riffs: 5 tanka poems from Joël Tan
Every day, Joël Barraquiel Tan posts a 5-line tanka poem to his Instagram. Approaching poetry as a daily practice that intermingles with mindfulness, gratitude, and joy, Tan's short poetic riffs give insight into the poet's perspective and his care for the world.
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Blues for Piper's Creek from poet Rasheena Fountain
Rasheena Fountain's work mainly focuses on Black environmental memory. Her creative practice is rooted in a place-based, ecological, and environmental justice approach, as is reflected in her poem below on Carkeek Park.
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Poet Justine Chan on white settler narratives and the loss of cultural history
In "[Envelope for the salmon]", former park ranger and poet Justine Chan writes about the season of salmon spawning and the forgotten histories of our land to grieve all that's been lost.
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Poet Ching-In Chen pens a spell for migrant laborers
In "Another Spell for the Living", Ching-In Chen writes with tenderness and care about the community of migrant massage parlor workers, sex workers, and care workers in the Chinatown-International District and greater Seattle area to humanize these women.
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Poet Troy Osaki on the Filipino diaspora in the Pacific Northwest
Spoken word poet Troy Osaki writes eloquently and tenderly of Filipino workers on the frontlines to bring visibility to their labor throughout the Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Reflecting on the global economy that creates the circumstances for human trafficking and the labor diaspora, Osaki's poem speaks deeply to identity and the longing for home.
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Clear-eyed observations and 3 haiku poems by Bob Redmond
Bob Redmond has been writing haiku for nearly two decades. As a practitioner who's honed his craft over many years, Bob's renders clear-eyed observations in concise 3-line poems that capture the immediacy of time and place, and the poet's gaze as a witness to change.
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Poet Koon Woon on his verses of solitude and the working-class immigrant life
Koon Woon has been an important member of the Seattle poetry community for decades. He’s the publisher of Goldfish Books and Chrysanthemum Poetry Journal, as well as a formidable poet in his own right. But his poems aren’t lofty and highbrow — they're deeply rooted in his lived experiences of poverty, working-class immigrant life, and living on the margins.
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Poet Luther Hughes remembers Dwone Anderson-Young and Ahmed Said
Poet Luther Hughes writes about the Black experience in the context of trauma and national violence. Remembering the lives of two gay Black men who were murdered on Capitol Hill in 2014, Hughes' poem "In Seattle" places a local tragedy in the context of its impact on the poet's lived experience.
