The Image & Word symposium features original work that explores the themes and feelings raised by the exhibition Asian American Portraits of Encounter.

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Kazim Ali

Responds to: My Life Strands by Zhang Chun Hong (1:45pm—2:45pm)
Kazim Ali is no stranger to displacement: he was born in the United Kingdom to Muslim parents of Indian descent who emigrated to Canada, then the United States. In poems, essays, and novels, Ali traverses not just oceans but the self, reminding us to honor both our unearthly histories and the artifacts of our day-to-day lives. — More about Kazim

Garrett Hongo

Responds to: Itch by Satomi Shirai (3:00pm—4:00pm)
Born in Volcano, Hawai'i, and raised on the island and in California, Garrett Hongo is a groundbreaking poet, memoirist, and editor who stands at the fountainhead of Asian American arts and letters. His work persistently explores the dynamic between person and place, the songs belted from a labored life. — More about Garrett

David Henry Hwang

Responds to: My Call to Arms by Tam Tran (3:00pm—4:00pm)
David Henry Hwang's M Butterfly rocked American Arts and Letters, helping him become the first Asian American to win the Tony Award for Best Play. From his first play, Obie-award-winning FOB, to his most recent, Chinglish, Hwang has focused on worlds American, Chinese, and Chinese American with bravery, aplomb, wit, and, ultimately, compassion. — More about David

Bao Phi

Responds to: Shimomura Crossing the Delaware by Roger Shimomura (12:30pm—1:30pm)
Performing on HBO's Def Poetry, helping on the Justice for Fong Lee Committee, or programming at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Bao Phi reminds us of the possibilities of engaged art. He is a two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion whose first collection of poetry, Sông I Sing, was published by Coffee House Press in 2011. — More about Bao

Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Responds to: The KYOPO Project-240 Portraits by CYJO (12:30pm—1:30pm)
Marie Myung-Ok Lee is an acclaimed novelist and essayist whose writing mines landscapes of difference for common humanity. Her young adult fiction, including the 2005 book Somebody's Daughter, is pioneering work. A founder of the Asian American Writers' Workshop, she has served as a judge for the National Book Award and is currently a writer-in-residence at Brown University. — More about Marie

Anna Kazumi Stahl

Responds to: Cat and Carm by Shizu Saldamando (1:45pm—2:45pm)
Whether writing about a Japanese man's encounter with a Tango lyricist in 1940s Argentina or a biracial child experiencing her parents' spiraling marriage, Anna Kazumi Stahl is always attuned to the subtlety and dynamism of life. She is the author of the short story collection Catástrofes Naturales (Natural Disasters, 1997) and the novel Flores de un Solo Día (Flowers for Just One Day, 2002). — More about Anna

Marianne Villanueva

Responds to: Walking, Drinking, Eating, and Sitting by Hye Yeon Nam (12:30pm—1:30pm)
Marianne Villanueva's fiction searches for truths both universal-jealousy, anger, grief, insecurity-and particular to the immigrant experience-idealism, fragmentation, and disillusionment. Her books include Ginseng and Other Tales from Manila (1991), short-listed for the Philippines' National Book Award, and Mayor of the Roses: Stories (2005). Villanueva lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. — More about Marianne