Ken Chen

Ken Chen is the executive director of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, a nonprofit dedicated to inventing the future of Asian American literary culture. He is the 2009 recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award, the oldest annual literary award in the United States, for his debut poetry collection Juvenilia. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers conference, Ken is a writer whose work has appeared or been recognized in Best American Essays 2006, Best American Essays 2007 (Honorable Mention), the Boston Review, CNN.com, and Fence.

He is one of the founders of CultureStrike, a national artist movement on immigration which organized 300 writers to boycott Arizona in the wake of SB1070 and brings writers to the immigration frontlines in this country. In addition to blogging for the avant-garde poe


Articles by Ken Chen

Writing as Craft
Sunday September 23

“We’re All In the Resistance Now”: A PEN Ten Interview with Jeff Biggers

“I view “resistance” through a fairly broad lens, and ultimately as part of our American credo to fend off attacks on democracy.”

Writing as Craft
Tuesday August 16

The PEN Ten with Ming Di

“I don’t think it’s the responsibility of writers to do anything. We do it anyway—out of consciousness, not responsibility.”

Writing as Craft
Tuesday June 21

The PEN Ten with E. Tammy Kim

“Writers are people, so we have political responsibilities that zigzag across the globe. If we are good at our craft, we have the additional burden of conveying information and fictions with clarity and beauty.” —E. Tammy Kim