The WVU Humanities Center is proud to announce its 2023-2024 Appalachian Writer of Color, Lisa Kwong, will read from her creative work on Monday, October 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Milano Room, Downtown Library.
“Lisa’s
work is homage to land and to family, and to having fidelity to more than one
place,” WVU Humanities Center Director Renée Nicholson said. “Poetry is the
perfect medium for her interconnected interests in language and identity.”
Kwong is the author of “Becoming AppalAsian” (Glass Lyre
Press, 2022) and a member of the Affrilachian Poets. Born and raised in
Radford, Virginia, Kwong identifies as AppalAsian, an Asian from Appalachia. A
first-generation college student, she earned her bachelor’s in English from
Appalachian State University and holds an M.F.A. in poetry from Indiana
University (IU).
Her poem “Searching for Wonton Soup” was Sundress
Publications’ 2019 Poetry Broadside Contest Winner, and her work has been
nominated for the Weatherford Award in Poetry, Pushcart Prize and Best of the
Net. Her poems have appeared in About
Place Journal, Women Speak, Best New Poets, A Literary Field Guide to Southern
Appalachia, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Anthology of Appalachian Writers,
Still: The Journal, Naugatuck River Review, Appalachian Heritage, Pluck!, The
Sleuth and other publications.
Kwong is also a multidisciplinary educator. She
has taught courses in Asian American studies, creative writing, English
composition and student success at IU and Ivy Tech Community College in
Bloomington, Ind.
Kwong’s visit is also sponsored by WVU’s Mountaineer Week.