Sun Yung Shin (born 1974) is a Korean American poet, writer, consultant, and educator living in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. She is the editor of "A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota" (

Minnesota Historical Society Press The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Educational institution, educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the Minnesota Terr ...

, 2016), author of "The Wet Hex" (

Coffee House Press Coffee House Press is a nonprofit independent press based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The press’s goal is to "produce books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience ...

2022), "Unbearable Splendor" (

2016), ''Rough, and Savage'' (

, 2012), ''Skirt Full of Black'' (

, 2007), and the bilingual (English/Korean) illustrated children's book ''Cooper's Lesson'' (

Children's Book Press Lee & Low Books is an independent children's book publisher focusing on diversity. History Lee & Low was founded in 1991 by Chinese Americans Tom Low and Philip Lee as a children's book publisher specializing in books featuring people of color a ...

, imprint of

Lee & Low Books Lee & Low Books is an independent children's book publisher focusing on diversity. History Lee & Low was founded in 1991 by Chinese Americans Tom Low and Philip Lee as a children's book publisher specializing in books featuring people of color a ...

). She was an editor with Jane Jeong Trenka and Julia Chinyere Oparah for ''Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption'' (

South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activists, notably Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Win ...

, 2006), the first international anthology on the politics of transracial adoption edited by transracial adoptees. ''Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption'' was released in a Korean-language edition by KoRoot Press in Seoul, South Korea, in 2012.

Biography

Shin was born in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea, and was adopted when she was 13 months during the second big wave of the adoption of Asian children. She was adopted by a white couple and was raised and grew up in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. She attended

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

for one year and then transferred to

Macalester College Macalester College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate institution with an enrollment of 2,142 students in the fall of 2023. The college ha ...

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...

and graduated ''cum laude'' with a degree in English. After graduating, she worked for a technology companies whose clients included United Health, The US Navy, and Pillsbury to pay off her college loans and pursue a master's degree. While in the process of obtaining her master's degree in teaching from the University of St. Thomas, she took a course on adolescent literature from playwright John Fenn. He liked a poem she wrote and took it home for his partner Jill Breckenridge to read. She loved it and encouraged Shin to continue writing poetry. Afterwards, she became the poetry editor of the campus literary magazine for

. From 2001 to 2002, Shin was in SASE: ''The Write Place'' mentor program with Minnesota poet Mark Nowak. Through the Loft's program, she was mentored by Wang Ping. Shin has worked teaching literature, media reform and creative writing at the

Perpich Center for Arts Education The Perpich Center for Arts Education is an agency of the state of Minnesota that seeks to advance K-12 education throughout the state by teaching in and through the arts. A campus in Golden Valley houses the center's three main components: the ...

. She also taught composition and creative writing at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Hamline University Hamline University ( ) is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of th ...

, University of St. Thomas, The College of St. Catherine,

The Loft Literary Center The Loft Literary Center is a non-profit literary organization located in Minneapolis, Minnesota incorporated in 1975. The Loft is a large and comprehensive independent literary center which offers a variety of writing classes, conferences, grant ...

and Intermedia Arts/SASE: ''The Write Place''. She taught English as second language and has been a guest artist in many inner city schools in the Minneapolis-St Paul. She was also involved in the now defunct Asian American Renaissance and as a board member on many other community organizations. Shin presents her work frequently in the Twin Cities, and her poems have appeared in journals such as '' Indiana Review'', '' Swerve'', ''

Court Green Court Green is a house in North Tawton, Devon, England. It was the home the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath moved to in late August 1961. Plath left the house on 10 December 1962, while Hughes lived there on and off for the rest of his life. It ...

'', ''

Mid-American Review ''Mid-American Review'' (''MAR'') is an international literary journal dedicated to publishing contemporary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations. Founded in 1981, ''MAR'' is a publication of the Department of English and the College of A ...

'', '' Sonora Review'', ''

Capilano Review ''The Capilano Review'' (''TCR'') is a Canadian tri-annual literary magazine located and published in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh ...

'' and ''Xcp cross-cultural poetics''.

Awards and honors

Shin won the

Asian American Literary Award The Asian American Literary Awards are a set of annual awards that have been presented by The Asian American Writers' Workshop since 1998. The awards include a set of honors for excellence in fiction, poetry and nonfiction, chosen by a panel of l ...

in 2008 for her book of poems ''Skirt Full of Black''. Shin's essays and fiction are anthologized in ''Fiction on a Stick'' (

Milkweed ''Asclepias'' is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to huma ...

), ''Riding Shotgun'' (Borealis), ''Transforming a Rape Culture'' (Milkweed), ''Echoes Upon Echoes: New Korean American Writings'' (

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

), ''The Encyclopedia Project'' Vol. 1, A-E, Vol. 2, F - K, and ''The Adoption Encyclopedia'' (

Greenwood Publishing Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG) was an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which was part of ABC-Clio. Since 2021, ABC-Clio and its suite of imprints, including GPG, are collectively imprints of B ...

). She also received the Minnesota Book Award in 2017 for her book ''Unbearable Splendor.'' She is a recipient of grants and awards from the (Archibald)

Bush Foundation The Bush Foundation is a charitable organization in the United States. It invests in programs in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share this geography. They work through open grantmaking programs to support e ...

, two time award recipient of Minnesota State Arts Board, Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, and

, and recipient of an artist's grant from the McKnight Foundation. She is also a 2022 MacDowell Residency Fellow. In 2023, she won the

Carter G. Woodson Book Award The Carter G. Woodson Book Award is an American literary award created in 1973 by the Racism and Social Justice Committee of the National Council for the Social Studies The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) is a private, non-profit ...

(Elementary Level) for ''Where We Come From''.

Publications

Poems in journals

* A Mortal Fantasy (''Axe Factory Review'', Issue 12, Print) (Fall, 2000)
The Wolveish Forage
(''DUSIE'', Online) (July, 2017)
Immigrant Song
(''Poetry Foundations'', Online) (June, 2017)
Woven Through with Snakes
(''The Cultural Society'', Online) (June, 2017)

Essays / non-fiction in anthologies

* "Harness" (''Others Will Enter the Gates'', New York, Print) (2014)

Essays in journals and other media

Afterword for Asian/American Curricular Epistemicide: From Being Excluded to Becoming Model Minority
(''Sense Publishing'', The Netherlands, Print) (2016)

Poems in special editions and venues

Empty Ring, Nest Fire
(''Poem-a-Day'', Academy of American Poets) (November 23, 2015)

Literary criticism

Human Acts ''Human Acts'' () is a South Korean novel written by Han Kang. The novel draws upon the democratization uprising that occurred on 18 May 1980, in Gwangju, Korea. In the novel, one boy's death provides the impetus for a dimensional look into th ...

(''Star Tribune, by Han Kang'') (January 13. 2017)

References

Sources

''Cooper's Lesson : 쿠퍼의 레슨 ''

''Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption''

''Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption''

''A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota''

''My Singularity''

''Valley,Uncanny''

'' Sun Yung Shin ''

External links

Sun Yung Shin's official website''This Spectral Evidence'', a literary journal edited by Sun Yung ShinA review of ''Rough, and Savage''An interview with Sun Yung Shin about ''Outsiders Within'' for ''The Twin Cities Daily Planet''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shin, Sun Yung American writers of Korean descent American women poets Poets from Chicago 1974 births Living people South Korean emigrants to the United States American women journalists 21st-century American poets Artists from Minnesota 21st-century American women writers Writers from Seoul Carter G. Woodson Book Award winners