Fall Readings

I’m happy to be reading in Seattle and Minneapolis this fall. On Thursday, September 15 I will be reading with Kevin Minh Allen at the Courtyard Marriott in Seattle for the 15th Anniversary of the Asian Adult Adoptees of Washington Mini-Gathering (registration is required) at 7:00 p.m. Also, on Wednesday, November 9 I will be reading at The Loft in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’m looking forward to both readings very much. In October (date to be determined) there will be a HOWL celebration that I’ve been asked to participate in—and last but not least, I am excited to have four poems in the forthcoming anthology, More Than Soil, More Than Sky: The Modesto Poets. On November 8, there will be a publication launch reading in Modesto, California.

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Writers for Japan : A Reading and Fundraiser, April 7, 2011

Please join us in Fresno for a special reading and fundraiser, WRITERS FOR  JAPAN, on Thursday, April 7, 2011.  From 6:00 to 7:00 pm, there is a social hour, with (no host) full menu, sushi, and bar.  Readings begin at 7:00 p.m.–featuring David Mas Masumoto, Lee Herrick, Steven Church, Alex Espinoza, Connie Hales, Andre Yang, Lisa Lee, Mike Medrano, Bryan Medina, Marisol Baca, Cynthia Guardado, Michelle Brittan, David Campos, and Christie Maki Dauden.  Also, there will be a special reading from Roberta Barton of the Japanese American Citizens League.

Thursday, April 7, 2011—Mr. Sushi Restaurant, 724 E. Olive Ave. in the Tower District, Fresno, CA.  $10 suggested at the door, but no one will pay turned away for lack of funds.

American Library Association READ program poster series, Fresno

Thank you to the Fresno County Library for inviting me to be part of the READ poster series, part of the American Library Association’s program to get people reading. I was one of several in Fresno to be featured–others included the police chief, news anchors, and city council members. They will be displaying the 8.5 x 11 posters at various library branches around the city. I hope you will continue to support your local, beautiful, and essential public libraries!

Lee Herrick and Burlee Vang, Poetry Reading

On Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 6:00 pm, I will be reading with my friend, poet Burlee Vang, whose chapbook, The Dead I Know : Incantations for Rebirth, was just published by Swan Scythe Press.  Barkin’ Dog Grill, 940 11th St., downtown Modesto, CA.  Open mic to follow the reading.  Poet Gillian Wegener hosts.

Association of Korean Adoptees, San Francisco—Lee Herrick Poetry Reading @ Eastwind Books of Berkeley

I will be reading with Jo Rankin, Kira Donnell, and Matthew Cisco on Saturday, August 28 at 4:00 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley (2066 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA) in conjunction with Association of Korean Adoptees, San Francisco.  As the East Bay is like a second home to me, I’m looking forward to seeing friends and the East Bay poetry community.  At 5:30 pm, after the reading, we’re going to dinner next door, if you are interested in joining us.  I hope to see you.

AWP 2011, Washington DC

Many thanks to Dana Collins for authoring a fantastic panel proposal and for inviting me to be on it.  I am happy to report the panel has been accepted, so I will be heading to DC early next year for AWP.  The panel is cross-genre, with poets and memoirists, including the always enlightening Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, as well as Catherine McKinley, author of The Book of Sarahs; and Precious Williams, author of Color Blind.  Williams is of Sierra Leonan and Nigerian hertiage raised in the British foster care system.  I am looking forward to reading with all of the panelists.  Here is the formal panel description:

Finding Identity in Cultural Margins: A Reading and Discussion on Transracial Adoption
Dana Collins, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Catherine McKinley, Lee Herrick, Precious Williams
For transracial adoptees, separation from biological lineage leads to searching for what defines family and home.  As adults, they straddle cultural margins between places of origin and places of migration.  Nowhere is this more evident than in their vivid personal testimonies.  From the Korean diaspora, from within America’s borders, and from the British foster system, come to a gathering of transracially adopted poets and memoirists reading from their work and discussing these potent themes.

The Poets of Fresno, Summer Reading Series

I’m grateful for the invitation to read at the first of three events being billed as The Poets of Fresno: Summer Reading Series.  These readings are fundraisers for David St. John’s Ash Tree Poetry Series.  I will be reading at the first one–at the beautiful and intimate Revue Café in Fresno’s Tower District on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.  The organizers are suggesting a $5 donation at the door, but that’s a steal for the poets on tap: C.G. Hanzlicek, David Dominguez, Michael Medrano, Jeff Schultz, Joseph Voth, Sylvia Savala, and me.  It should be a great night.  Come on out and enjoy.  For more information and extended bios on all the readers, please visit the website.

Thank you, Fresno Magazine

Many thanks to Chelsea Bieker and Fresno Magazine for the great article/interview, which appears in their May 2010 issue, available now!  In Fresno, there are dozens of locations to pick up a copy, including Barnes and Noble and Borders, and of course you can order a copy online if you’re not in the city.  I’m grateful to Chelsea (an emerging fiction writer and bright spirit) for the thoughtful and well-written article.

ALA, SF, CA 5-29-2010

I am honored to be reading at the 2010 American Literature Association Conference in San Francisco, California — Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 11:00 a.m.  The reading’s theme : going beyond the tropes in Asian American literature and poetics.  The other writers are stellar : Barbara Jane Reyes, Yunte Huang, and Viet Nguyen.  Visit the ALA website to register for the conference.

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This has me thinking how expansive and rich this terrain has become — I’ve been interviewed on several occasions recently by graduate students who theses or dissertations focus on APA literature or poetics, as well as transnational adoptee authors.  When I began writing, there were not many around, if any.  When you see Cathy Park Hong, Oliver de la Paz, Paisley Rekdal, Esther Lee, Rick Barot, R.A. Villanueva, and others all in the same week, as I just did this week—in the same season we see new books by Sueyuen Juliette Lee and Sonya Chung—it is a very good time.  A strange time in many ways (the economy, the Tea Party)—but a good time to be writing and reading.

Tuesday, April 13 @ 6:00 pm, Sixteen Rivers Press anthology reading in Modesto

Tuesday, April 13, 2010—I will be reading in Modesto, CA at the Barkin’ Dog Grill (940 11th St., Downtown) for a publication celebration reading for the new anthology, The Place That Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed, brand new from Sixteen Rivers Press.  Readers include Stella Beratlis, Quentin Duval, Jeff Knorr, and me.  The evening will begin with a reading by Margaret Kaufman, whose book Inheritance just came out from Sixteen Rivers.  Come on out to Downtown Modesto and help us launch this new book.  It’s a fantastic collection, with a fine foreword from Robert Hass.