Visiting Writers Myung Mi Kim & Kristen Radtke

On Thursday, November 9, the Creative Writing Program welcomes two visiting writers for readings and discussions of their recent work. Avant-garde poet Myung Mi Kim and graphic memoirist Kristen Radtke will make a joint appearance at 7:30 p.m. in Johnson Center Meeting Room G. The authors will also be part of a meet-and-greet reception at 7 p.m. in the same space.

Myung Mi KimMyung Mi Kim’s poetry collections include Under Flag (1991), winner of the Multicultural Publishers Exchange Award of Merit; The Bounty (1996); DURA (1999); Commons (2002); River Antes (2006); and Penury (2009). An avant-garde poet who often employs fragmentary language and uses the white space of the page, Myung Mi Kim explores issues of dislocation, colonization, immigration, loss of her first language, and the fallout of history in her work. Eric Weinstein, poetry editor for Prick of the Spindle, commented in a review: “Penury instantiates exactly that: a poetics of extreme and devastating lack, an inadequacy and insufficiency of language designed to mirror the extraordinary poverty of its subject(s).”

Kristen Radtke

Kristen Radtke is the author of the graphic nonfiction book Imagine Wanting Only This (2017), whose honors include being named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick and an Entertainment Weekly Best Graphic Novel. The New York Times Book Review wrote: “Radtke is, first and foremost, a superhuman of illustration, a grandmaster like Adrian Tomine or Chris Ware. Her photo-based, exquisitely executed drawings appear more realistic and seductive than photographs could ever hope to be…. A portrait of a powerful mind grappling with alienation and loneliness.” Radtke is also the art director and New York editor of The Believer magazine.

Kim and Radtke will be leading workshops with MFA students in the afternoon before their appearances Thursday night. The reception and readings are free and open to the public.