EP 227: Shin Yu Pai’s (got) Ten Thousand Things
“There's no one right way to be Asian American you know? The diasporic experiences trying to grapple with culture, what to keep and carry, what to relate to - so very human and universal.”
Shin Yu is many things - poet and writer, but also podcast host and producer of Ten Thousand Things – a show for Seattle’s NPR affiliate KUOW Public Radio. Shin Yu’s also currently the Civic Poet of Seattle (2023-2024) and author of 11 books, including most recently Virga. She is the recipient of awards from the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, 4Culture, and The Awesome Foundation, as well as a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and she was shortlisted in 2014 for a Stranger Genius Award in Literature. Shin Yu served as Poet Laureate for The City of Redmond from 2015-2017. Shin Yu’s work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the UK, and Canada - in publications like Atlas Obscura, Tricycle Magazine, YES! Magazine, NYTimes, Zocalo Public Square, Seattle Met, ParentMap, Seattle’s Child, International Examiner, and South Seattle Emerald, and many more. Sharon and Shin Yu related to each other in a ranging conversation about Chinese childhood and raising bi-racial children - both of which have formed her ideas about art, literature and storytelling. You’ll appreciate her deep passion for connecting communities, connecting cultures, and drawing out beauty in the most unique ways
LEARN ABOUT SHIN YU
PODCAST: kuow.org/podcasts/bluesuit
SUPPORT UPCOMING WORKS:
“No Neutral” (poetry collection) -spdbooks.org/Products/9798988370109/no-neutral.aspx
“Less Desolate” (haiku comics collection) - kickstarter.com/projects/1701310602/less-desolate
“Small Doses of Awareness” (Microdosing Guide) - amazon.com/-/he/Shin-Yu-Pai/dp/1797227823
MENTIONS
BOOK: Letters to a Young Poet (Rainer Maria Rilke): goodreads.com/work/quotes/1208289-briefe-an-einen-jungen-dichter