A Tradition of Gathering: Taiwanese American Writers at AWP 2025

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[gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="23842,23843"] For the third year in a row, TaiwaneseAmerican.org founder Ho Chie Tsai and editor-in-chief Leona Chen hosted a Taiwanese American Writers’ Dinner during the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP). This time, we gathered at Pine & Crane DTLA, and immediately began chatting —first in the queue, then at a long table where we rotated seats to ensure new connections. These conversations could happen anywhere,…

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Gathering Taiwanese American Writers at AWP 2024: “I wish I had this community growing up.”

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On Lunar New Year’s eve, we again gathered an expanding cohort of Taiwanese American changemakers in the literary world who’d convened in Kansas City for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference (AWP). Our Year of the Dragon dinner was hosted at Chewology, led by recently James Beard semifinalist nominated-chef Katie Liu-Sung. We were touched by Katie's vision to bring Taiwan to Kansas City, where there are relatively fewer Asian Americans compared to coastal enclaves.…

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This is why you must read “THIS IS NOT MY HOME”

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An Interview with Best Friends Eugenia Yoh and Vivienne Chang, and a Review of Their Debut Picture Book This is a totally unbiased review of the greatest debut picture book I’ve ever read. The first time I read This Is Not My Home was, indeed, not at my home—rather, it was at a publishing house. For context, this publishing house was supposed to be a new home for not only myself, but also Eugenia, for we were both newish hires at the time. At the time, the publishing house still felt…

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How our bodies domesticate/disaster: An Interview with Kristin Chang, Past Lives, Future Bodies

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Reading Kristin Chang’s work revives all the little things we lose: our names for nation. Yeye and his ghosts. Papaya in Taiyu meaning wood/melon. She doesn’t tackle, but instead deftly burrows into bodies of queerness, identity, immigration, and colonialism, a laundry list of tropes Chang has somehow resurrected and dissected in new, astonishing ways. I know it’s selfish and absurd to suggest a book of this artistry might have been conceived just for me, but I swear I once begged the…

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50 Books for Your Taiwanese American Library

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During the second full week of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month each May, we proudly recognize and celebrate Taiwanese American Heritage Week! In the past decade, more than a handful of authors, writers, creatives, and poets have emerged to write the many stories of our patchwork community into being. Below, we have compiled a list of nearly 50 titles from this talented pool. Many of the authors themselves are Taiwanese Americans or have ties to Taiwan. Some of these books have Taiwanese…

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Harvest Moons and Autumn Flowers

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"I don’t know how the moon looked where you were last night, but from the curb where I stood, a few paces away from the auto repair shop and the two men tamping down the embers of their barbecue, the moon was round and luminous and haunting, and it glowed even through the quick-flitting clouds. Last night’s moon-gazing was for the Mid-Autumn Festival. That means it’s fully autumn, and it’s time to unveil a project I’ve been working on for the past year." About 12 hours after Kevin…

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Beyond the Amy Tan Questions: Why a Millennial TA Anthology

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I call them the “Amy Tan Questions.” Questions like “how do families relate in context of war, distance, and famine?” or “how does a child reconcile the old world of their parents with the new world America in which they live?”. These questions are important, for they are our foundation as a community and give us vignettes of Asian and Asian American history that American public schools neglected. But they are dated, and they are not our stories. I wanted to see writing that moved…

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Join TaiwaneseAmerican.org!

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TaiwaneseAmerican.org is looking for writers, digital media junkies & more to join the global team! TaiwaneseAmerican.org is excited to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, and as the site and community have grown with such wonderful speed and diversity since then, we are exploring ways to expand our efforts this summer. Do you love Taiwanese food, people, culture and travel? Are you interested in community, digital storytelling and marketing? Do you enjoy Totoro--er, internet…

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