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Current Work
Adamantine is a collection of poems examining the strength of stone and the human spirit's ability to transform itself through adversity. Drawing from global news coverage, the characters populating these poems include an Olympic medalist, the tallest man in the world, a young father stranded in the Oregon wilderness and a burning monk. A separate suite of poems contemplates my ongoing interest in the relationship between visual arts and poetry - with poems written inspired by the work of Carsten Holler, Alex Calder, Francisco Goya, Steven LaRose, Tom Friedman, and others. This manuscript of poems is currently seeking a publisher.
Haiku Not Bombs - a collaboratively authored manuscript of haiku with Tom Gilroy, Grant Lee Buffalo, Jim McKay, Denise Seigel, Patrick So, Rick Roth, and Alison Roth. These poems were written in 2005. Booklyn Artists Alliance published an edition of this collection in 2008. Visit the haiku blog here.
Structure of the Inner Ear is a collaboration with Oregon-based visual artist Steven LaRose.
Nutritional Feed - a collaboration with NY painter David Lukowski. Lukowski's paintings are abstract narratives reflective of childhood and the American experience. My texts for this collaboration treat the paintings as ekphrastic objects, tracking the process of eye, mind, and heart. This project is seeking a publisher.
each blade of grass, each drop of dew - an ethnographic memoir of the Pai Tsai family from Ching Shui, Taiwan. The collection gathers together archival photographs of family members from the early- to mid-1900s. This collection will be produced as a limited edition artist's book in an unfolding ox-plow structure.
Works on Paper - a project with letterpress publisher Convivio Bookworks (formerly Red Wagon Bookworks). Collecting together old and new poems, these texts explore the many uses and meanings of paper. Published in May 2007.
Selected Writings: 2000-2005 - this book gathers together texts created for interdisciplinary collaborations. Spanning five years of writing, included here are the poems of "Unnecessary Roughness", "The Love Hotels", "Nutritional Feed" and the verse play "Concave is the Opposite of Convex" - also known as "Lines from a Chinese-English Phrase Book." Available from 1913 Press and directly from Shin Yu.
The Love Hotel Poems - an ethnographic study of Japanese love hotels. This series of work explores the narratives of people and their interactions within these intimate spaces, subverting Westernized notions of exoticized Japanese sexuality and kink. Listen to poems from the collection here or read excerpts here. Available now through Press Lorentz.
Unnecessary Roughness - a collaborative visual text mansucript with NY-based photographer Ference Suto which explores the relationship between sports and the development of adolescent sexuality and identity. The texts of this collaboration has been published as a chapbook from xPress(ed).
Equivalence - my first full-length collection takes its inspiration from modern and contemporary artists such as Wolfgang Laib, Piet Mondrian, John Pomara, Yoko Ono, and Felix-Gonzales-Torres. The manuscript takes its name from photographer Alfred Stieglitz’s series of clouds images, which he likened to the experience of the living sky. The poems in this collection draw connections between the visual arts and poetry, in addition to Eastern and Western cultures and traditions, exploring the theme of equivalence throughout the human experience. Available from La Alameda Press.
Ten Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers - My first chapbook, produced at Naropa by Jerry Tumlinson of Third Ear Books, with calligraphy by Keith Abbott and letterpressed covers by Brad O'Sullivan of Smokeproof Press. Bilingual edition of translations of ancient Chinese poetry. Introduction by Andrew Schelling. No longer in print. |
Short Bio
Shin Yu Pai has taught creative writing at Kenyon College, the University of Texas at Dallas, and Southern Methodist University. She has lectured on her work at the University of Pittsburgh, the Institute of American Indian Arts, The Boston Conservatory, the Art Institute of Boston, and Simmons College. She was the keynote speaker at the annual writer's conference at Schreiner University in 2004.
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Honors
Fellowships from Taipei Artist Village, MacDowell, The Ragdale Foundation, and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Recipient of a 2003 grant from the Cambridge Cultural Council. Recipient of a grant from the Puffin Foundation. |
Union Affiliations/Professional Organizations
PEN America (Member);
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Artist Location
Seattle, WA
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Art forms
Literary, Visual/Graphic, Multidisciplinary
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Type of artist
Writer, Editor, Arts Educator
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General Themes
Art Forms/Art Criticism, Race/Ethnicity/Cultural Identity, Religion/Spirituality, History, Body Image/Body Size |
Keywords
Asian American,
Taiwanese,
visual poetry,
ekphrastic poetry,
cultural criticism, Buddhism, visual culture, visual anthropology, expressive cultures, modernity,waste |
| Last updated on July 1st, 2008 |
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