Shin Yu Pai
Host, Ten Thousand Things
About
Shin Yu Pai [pronounced Shin Yee Pie] is the current Civic Poet for The City of Seattle (2023-24) and host of KUOW's podcast Ten Thousand Things (formerly The Blue Suit). Shin Yu is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and was shortlisted for a 2014 Stranger Genius in Literature. She is the author of eleven books of poetry, including most recently Virga (Empty Bowl, 2021). From 2015 to 2017, she served as the fourth Poet Laureate of the City of Redmond. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Atlas Obscura, NY Times, Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, Seattle Met, Zocalo Public Square, Gastronomica, City Arts, The Stranger, South Seattle Emerald, International Examiner, Ballard News-Tribune, Seattle’s Child, Seattle Globalist, and ParentMap. Shin Yu’s work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Canada. She is represented by Tyler Tsay at The Speakeasy Project.
Podcasts
Stories
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The Blue Suit is back... now as Ten Thousand Things
In many Chinese sayings, “ten thousand” is used in a poetic sense to convey something infinite, vast, and unfathomable. For Shin Yu Pai – award-winning poet and museologist – the story of Asians in America is just that. Introducing Ten Thousand Things, a special podcast series about modern-day artifacts of Asian American life, created and hosted by Shin Yu Pai and produced by KUOW.
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Poetic treasures from Alan Chong Lau
For decades, Alan Chong Lau worked slicing, cutting, and trimming produce at Uwajimaya, while making art and writing poems about his observations of the neighborhood. He chronicled his experiences in a book of poems called "Blues and Greens: A Produce Worker’s Journal."
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Poet Samar Abulhassan on a historic beauty salon in Seattle's Central District
In "Sacred Bowl", Samar Abulhassan contemplates the living history of the the DeCharlene Salon, a Black-owned shop with more than 50 years of being in business within Seattle's Central District. During the pandemic, the rapport that Abulhassan established with the granddaughter of the salon's original owner helped her to feel connected to others and herself.
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E. Briskin on navigating Seattle drivers
In "Seattle, this poem isn't real—", E. Briskin delves into the habits of Northwest drivers who have been found in a recent independent survey from PEMCO Mutual Insurance to be less courteous and more aggressive than in recent years.
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Poet Lorna Dee Cervantes on the literary history of The Blue Moon Tavern
Lorna Dee Cervantes celebrates the rich literary history of The Blue Moon Tavern, favorite watering hole of poets like Carolyn Kizer, Allen Ginsberg, Theodore Roethke, Richard Hugo, and Dylan Thomas in her poem "Dancing with Roethke."
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Charting change in Beacon Hill with poet Roberto Ascalon
The Bureau of Fearless Ideas (BFI) is one large classroom on the ground floor of the Yesler Terrace complex, a multi-use housing development in Beacon Hill. The walls are packed with language – words, rhymes, and creative affirmations. It's here that Roberto Ascalon, the poet in residence, is a mentor to new poets.
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Gratitude and poetic riffs: 5 tanka poems from Joël Tan
Every day, Joël Barraquiel Tan posts a 5-line tanka poem to his Instagram. Approaching poetry as a daily practice that intermingles with mindfulness, gratitude, and joy, Tan's short poetic riffs give insight into the poet's perspective and his care for the world.
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Blues for Piper's Creek from poet Rasheena Fountain
Rasheena Fountain's work mainly focuses on Black environmental memory. Her creative practice is rooted in a place-based, ecological, and environmental justice approach, as is reflected in her poem below on Carkeek Park.
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Poet Justine Chan on white settler narratives and the loss of cultural history
In "[Envelope for the salmon]", former park ranger and poet Justine Chan writes about the season of salmon spawning and the forgotten histories of our land to grieve all that's been lost.
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Poet Ching-In Chen pens a spell for migrant laborers
In "Another Spell for the Living", Ching-In Chen writes with tenderness and care about the community of migrant massage parlor workers, sex workers, and care workers in the Chinatown-International District and greater Seattle area to humanize these women.