Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong and Khaty Xiong

12 NOVEMBER 2015 — thursday

Poetry Flash presents a reading by Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong, ravel, and Khaty Xiong, Poor Anima, request ASL interpreters one week in advance from editor@poetryflash.org, wheelchair accessible, Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, www.moesbooks.com)

MORE ABOUT THE READERS
Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong’s first book of poems is ravel. Koon Woon says, “In this ‘multilingual’ collection of poems, Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong writes of the subtext of terror in every ‘civilized good.’ Hidden histories, suffering, and injustice are calmly dissected by this poet with clear eyes and straight diction—words that at once enlighten, empower, and untangle.” ravel was a finalist for the Many Voices Project from New Rivers Press and the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong is both a poet and a software developer in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among her projects is a digital anthology, The Taste of Each, curated around references to oranges and bananas in various literary and artistic works across the world.
Khaty Xiong’s debut book of poems is Poor Anima. Elizabeth Robinson says, “Khaty Xiong writes a penumbra poetry…Xiong’s poetry is also a sacrificial poetry, both in the sense that it knows and performs ritual, and in the sense that it gives itself up, completely, to currents that it perceives but can’t tame…These poems are deeply strange, deeply courageous, deeply beautiful.” She is a second-generation Hmong-American from Fresno, California. Born to Hmong refugees from Laos, she is the seventh daughter among her fifteen brothers and sisters. She is the author of two chapbooks, Elegies, winner of the Merriam-Frontier Award, and Deer Hour.