9-03-2026 6:07pm

Accomplished LFP Resident Finalist For Washington State Book Awards

Chris Clasen Editor

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ching-In Chen (pronounced “Chingy”), an LFP resident and associate professor in both the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and the MFA program in creative writing and poetics at the University of Washington Bothell. They served as writer-in-residence at Hugo House 2022-2024. Now in its 60th year, the Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress administered by Washington State Library) has selected 41 finalists in seven categories for the 2026 Washington State Book Awards for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2025.

Chen is a longtime organizer in Asian American and LGBTQ+ communities; Chen’s celebrated past works include recombinant (Kelsey Street Press), which earned the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry, and The Heart's Traffic (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press). Their contributions to local arts and culture also extend to civic leadership: Chen was appointed Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington (2023–2025) and awarded an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.

The nomination underscores Chen's growing influence as a key voice in contemporary American poetry. The winners of the Washington State Book Awards will be announced later this year by the Washington Center for the Book.

In addition to being an editor for Airlie Press, they joined Kelsey Street Press, which published their 2nd collection, recombinant, as an editor. They chose Jennifer Perrine's book, Beautiful Outlaw, as the winner of the 2023 QTBIPOC Book Prize and served as the editor. The book won the Oregon Book Award for Poetry.

They are the co-lead for the Kundiman Pacific Northwest chapter and have recently joined the national board. Kundiman is a national Asian American and Pacific Islander organization that nurtures and supports writers. They were a fellow at the inaugural retreat in 2004 and have gone back as retreat staff and faculty.

They have been co-organizing with the Kundiman PNW chapter co-lead Asela Lee Kemper, a virtual New Books showcase for Pacific Northwest Asian American and Pacific Islander poets on Tuesday, September 15, 2026.

Kundiman Pacific Northwest New Books Virtual Showcase! T, Sept 15, 2026, 7- 8:30 p.m. PST

Come and celebrate new book releases from our Pacific Northwest community!

With readings by:

nawa angel a.h., author of Waling Waling Palpitations (First Matter Press)

Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho, author of The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street: A Memoir (Douglas & McIntyre)

Kalehua Kim, author of Mele (Trio House Press)

Jennifer Perrine, author of Beautiful Outlaw (Kelsey Street Press)

M. K. Thekkumkattil, author of The Sexuality of Care: On Nursing, Kink, and a Future Without

Hospitals (The Feminist Press)

To receive the Zoom link, please sign up @ https://bit.ly/KundimanShowcase

About the Readers:

nawa angel (they/them), who performs sometimes as Moonyeka, is a chimeric creator with a multi-embodied presence in performance, qt nightlife, eco-erotics, writing, experimental media, teaching artistry and divination praxis. They center kilig as a compass to conjure erotically charged revolutions with animistic unapology, risque', and mixed-Ilocano bakla imagination. In their mundane-rest-joy strategies, they're probably yearning to make sinigang, asking the Boy Deers to kindly not eat ~all~ of the leaves from their plant starts, practicing blowing bubbles out their nose in a big body of water, or playing their current fave video game: Cyberpunk 2077.

Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho is a Taiwanese Canadian writer, whose award-winning short stories and personal essays have been published in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street: A Memoir (Douglas & McIntyre, 2026) is her first book. A strong champion of literary community, Wiley founded the Diasporic Writers Salon and is a member of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, The Writers' Union of Canada, and the North Shore Writers’ Association, where she regularly organizes and hosts reading events and writing workshops. www.wileyweichiunho.com

Kalehua Kim is the author of Mele, winner of the inaugural Pasifika Poetry Prize awarded by the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association. She was named one of Poets & Writers featured debut poets for 2025 and was a 2023 winner of the James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets. Her work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Denver Quarterly, Calyx, and ‘Ōiwi, A Native Hawaiian Journal.

Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the author of five award-winning books of poetry: Beautiful Outlaw, Again, The Body Is No Machine, In the Human Zoo, and No Confession, No Mass. Their other recent work appears in the anthologies Best Small Fictions, Uncertain Girls in Uncertain Times, and A Mouth Holds Many Things: A De-Canon Hybrid Lit Collection. JP lives in Portland, where they cohost the Incite: Queer Writers Read series, guide nature and forest therapy retreats, and manage an equity and environmental justice program for the state of Oregon. www.jenniferperrine.org

M. K. Thekkumkattil is a trans, disabled, kinky writer and nurse whose liberation is bound up with Palestinian liberation. They have received support from SmokeLong Quarterly, Tin House, Queer Art Mentorship, Lambda Literary, VONA, and Writing by Writers. Their work can be found in the essay collection, The Sexuality of Care, the chapbook Weaving Liberation as well as in Black Warrior Review, smoke and mold, Year Round Queer, and In the Future There Are No Hospitals.

In conjunction with the reading, Kundiman Pacific Northwest is hosting our 1st ever book club, starting with Kalehua Kim’s Mele!

W, Sept 9, 7p PST, Kundiman PNW Virtual Book Club

Please bring your own copy of Kalehua Kim’s Mele! Kundiman PNW chapter will purchase copies of the books for up to 8 participants. Seattle-area participants can pick up copies at Open Books during their open hours. To sign up and for the Zoom link, please visit: https://bit.ly/KalehuaKimBookClub

Additional places to check out Chen’s work:

A virtual salon Shiny City reading on DMQ Review!

A Beginner's Mind interview for Emily Mohn-Slate's Be Where You Are newsletter, exploring the intersection of creative practice & mindfulness

An Oregon ArtsWatch interview with David Bates

A review of Shiny City by Rob McLennanMy guest-edited issue of Amplifying Trans Joy

Publications:

SHINY CITY (Airlie Press, 2025)

TO MAKE BLACK PAPER SING (SpeCt! Books, 2019)

RECOMBINANT (Kelsey Street Press 2017)

THE HEART'S TRAFFIC (Arktoi Books 2009)

THE REVOLUTION STARTS AT HOME (South End Press 2011, AK Press 2016)

Pronouns: they/them/theirs

Bluesky: @chingin.bsky.social

Instagram: @chinginchen

Facebook: facebook.com/chenchingin/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chinginchen/

Sara Peté | Community Outreach Librarian Washington Center for the Book (director), AskWA: The Statewide Virtual Reference Cooperative (coordinator), WSL Social Media Washington State Library | Office of the Secretary of State 6880 Capitol Blvd SE, Tumwater, Washington c: 360-480-1005 sara.pete@sos.wa.gov