Poets & Writers Theater

In this AAWW conversation moderated by Piyali Bhattacharya, writers with debut essay collections recently published, including Cathy Park Hong, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Sejal Shah, discuss Asian American identity, genre, gender, race, publishing, and the ways that the essay form has allowed writers to tell important stories. 

“It was important for me to write a book in which I could try to change this country’s consciousness.” Cathy Park Hong speaks about her award-winning essay collection, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (One World, 2020), and the urgency to write from a personal perspective in this 2021 video for TIME Magazine’s annual 100 most influential people in the world issue.

“Minor feelings are also the emotions we are accused of having when we decide to be difficult—in other words, when we decide to be honest,” reads Cathy Park Hong from her essay collection, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (One World, 2020), in this Yale Review video from their two hundredth anniversary festival in 2020. 

“It’s particularly, specifically, about what it means to be Asian American, which is a subject that I’ve always actually kind of avoided. I’ve always indirectly approached it, but I’ve never directly tackled it.” At Malvern Books, Cathy Park Hong describes her experience writing her first essay collection, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (One World, 2020), featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, and reads “The End of White Innocence” from the book.

"Reading and writing allows us to be empathic. And without empathy, I think, our society would be at a total loss. I think in that way, writing can affect great change." Poets Nathaniel Mackey and Cathy Park Hong answer questions from New York City high school students about writing and inspiration at a live Writers at Work event hosted by 92nd Street Y with the Paris Review.

“I feel like I must muzzle myself, / I told my psychiatrist. / ‘So you feel dangerous?’ she said. / Yes. / ‘So you feel like a threat?’ / Yes. / Why was I so surprised to hear it?” At the Asian American Writers' Workshop, Solmaz Sharif reads from her debut poetry collection, Look (Graywolf Press, 2016), which is longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award in poetry. Sharif is joined by poets Rickey Laurentiis, Mariam Ghani, and Cathy Park Hong, who they read her work and their own, and join in a discussion.