A Masters of Craft Talk with Ryka Aoki
Date & Time: Wednesday, May 11th, 2022 | 7:00 PM ET
Duration: 1.5 hours
Tuition: $30
Capacity: Limited. Seats are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
ABOUT THE CRAFT TALK
When you’re trans, even going to the bathroom can be politicized. Imagine what happens to your writing. In this Masters of Craft Talk, Ryka will chat about her direct experience navigating genres, readers, publications, and expectations as queer, as POC, as trans, as Asian, as a woman... "I hope that sharing my experiences of finding agents, editors, and presses—as well as working both inside and outside my chosen communities—can give folks insights and perspectives to help them find their own ways to work as writers who want to create their best work, while honoring and safeguard the villages that raised them."
ABOUT THE MASTER STORYTELLER:
Ryka Aoki’s (she/her) first novel, He Mele a Hilo, was published by Topside Press in 2014. She is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for her collections Seasonal Velocities, and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul. Ryka’s work has appeared or been recognized in publications including Vogue, Elle, Bustle, Autostraddle, PopSugar, and Buzzfeed, as well as the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Ryka has been honored by the California State Senate for “extraordinary commitment to the visibility and well-being of Transgender people.” She has an MFA in creative writing from Cornell University and is currently a professor of English at Santa Monica College.
Partial and full scholarships available. To inquire, email Info@RootsWoundsWords.org. Explicitly state which scholarship (partial or full) you’re interested in.
Closed captioning is provided. Like all RWW offerings, this space is for Black, Indigenous, Latinx/e, Asian, and other Storytellers of Color only. BIPOC Storytellers are centered here, exclusively.
This program was funded in part by Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This Masters of Craft Talk is held in partnership with the Asian American Writers' Workshop (AAWW). AAWW is devoted to creating, publishing, developing, and disseminating creative writing by Asian Americans, and to providing an alternative literary arts space at the intersection of migration, race, and social justice.