Girlhood as a Vessel of Grief: A Poetry Reading and Conversation

What does it mean to grieve girlhood? To remember a life not long ago lived?

The poems in Susan Nguyen’s forthcoming collection, Dear Diaspora, are equal parts joy and grief, response and remembrance. Centering on a speaker named Suzi, the collection draws from the Vietnamese diaspora to unravel questions of identity, selfhood, and American adolescence.

Similarly, the poems in Bo Schwabacher’s collection, Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, glimmer with an honest introspection, centering on her adopted Korean experience to reveal the intricacies of identity, abandonment, and family love.

Join us for a poetry reading and moderated conversation with poets Susan Nguyen and Bo Schwabacher on Thursday, May 20 at 6:00 PM MST. This virtual program will also include a Q&A with the audience.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Susan Nguyen earned her MFA in Poetry from Arizona State University, where she won the Aleida Rodriguez Memorial Prize and fellowships from the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. In 2018, PBS NewsHour named her one of “three women poets to watch.” Her work appears in diagram, Tin House, and elsewhere. Her first poetry collection, Dear Disapora, won the 2020 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and will be published in September 2021. Find her at susanpoet.com.

Bo Schwabacher is a South Korean adoptee. Born in South Korea, she was adopted at three-months-old. Bo grew up in Illinois. Her poems have appeared in Cha, CutBank, diode, Redivider, Sweet Tree Review, The Offing, and others. Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, published by Tinderbox Editions, is her debut collection of poems.