Category: Events

Marilyn Chin headlined the special poetry reading at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, commemorating one of the most iconic events in America’s history – the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad 150 years ago, on May 10, 1869. She was joined by Paisley Rekdal (Utah’s State Poet Laureate) and Regie Cabico, who shared their recent work about the Transcontinental Railroad and its legacy.

Poetry After Hours: Poetry Im/migration, Labor and Trains highlights the role the construction of the railroad plays in the heritage and identity of Asian Americans. More than 40,000 Chinese immigrants arrived in California during the 1850s. By the time the railroad was finished majority of the workers for Central Pacific were Chinese immigrants. Despite hard work they continued to experience discrimination for generations after the completion of the project.

The USPS has issued a postal stamp dedicated to the Golden Spike celebration.

Sat, May 11 at 6:00 PM
National Postal Museum
2 Massachusetts Avenue Northeast

Grossmont College Literary Arts Festival, a weeklong event organized by the English Department’s Creative Writing program, hosted a performance by Marilyn at 11 am on Tuesday, April 23 at the Griffin Gate Bldg. 60. Poet Ilya Kaminsky, a fellow former SDSU professor, later that day read from his new collection, “Deaf Republic,”

Marilyn Chin, SDSU Professor Emerita is returning for another performance at the Love Library, a part of the Spring 2019 Hugh C. Hyde Living Writers Series.

May 1st, 2019 at 7PM in Love Library, 430

Begin Tomorrow Today: 2019 Poetry Program, held at California State University at Fullerton is hosting a reading by Marilyn Chin.

Pollak Library

800 N State College Blvd. Fullerton, CA 92834

Monday, April 15, 2019 at 1 PM

Marilyn will be reading with Maxine Hong Kingston and Carmen Gimenez Smith at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference and Bookfair held this year in Portland, OR.

The AWP Conference brings 12,000 attendees together to discuss what matter most in contemporary literature. The reading is sponsored by Kundiman.

Oregon Ballroom, Oregon Convention Center, Portland OR
Thursday, March 28, 2019 12:00 pm

The reading at the AWP Conference was a great success. Maxine and Marilyn gave amazing performances, loved by the entire audience.

Marilyn Chin visited University of North Georgia in January. She included in her reading a selection of poems that invariably are “student favorites,” and that leads to an open and lively conversation. Her Dahlonega Campus presentation took place at 5 pm on Feb. 5 in the Great Room in Hoag Student Center Campus. Gainesville Campus visit was at noon on Feb. 6, located in room 3110A of the Martha T. Nesbitt Building.

Anastasia Lin hosted the visit. She is an associate professor of English and teaches multicultural literature. This project is supported by Georgia Humanities, and working in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Marilyn gave a raucous performance to an overflowing room of students, old friends and dedicated fans, at the University of California at San Diego Geisel Library. A part of UCSD Fall Wring Series, the reading was hosted by Professor Brandon Som and attended by musician Severino Reyes.

Wednesday, November 28 2018, 5:00 pm

Marilyn Chin, on the book tour for her new book A Portrait of the Self as Nation, will be reading from her work and participating in conversations at the following events:

Folger Shakespeare Library: Linda Pastan, Marilyn Chin & Ellen Bass

Monday, September 17, 2018, 7:30 pm

Folger Theatre, 201 E Capitol St SE, Washington, DC 20003

The Life of the Poet: Marilyn Chin with Ron Charles

Monday, October 1, 2018, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Hill Center DC, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE Washington, DC, 20003

Lowell Memorial Poetry Reading: Marilyn Chin and Tara Skurtu

The event will be introduced by Robert Pinsky and hosted by BU Creative Writing MFA alumna Tara Skurtu, with reception to follow.

Thursday, October 25, 2018, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Boston University, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center’s Roosevelt Room

June 2016 issue of the Poetry magazine, published by the Poetry Foundation, includes exciting new work from Marilyn. This is the first installment of short verse about the “Little Box“, an impassioned reply to a series of poems by a late Serbian poet Vasko Popa.

Born in 1922, Popa came to literary prominence after the WWII. His work defies simple classification, as in the West Popa was variously labeled as modernist, avant-garde, even surrealist. Meanwhile, in Socialist Yugoslavia he was accepted into the mainstream culture and noted for his strong sense of national identity and his roots in ethnic folklore. Popa has been highly praised and translated into English by Charles Simic.

Marilyn spent Spring semester of 2016 at the renouned Smith College, a private liberal arts college for women, located in Northampton, Massachusetts and established in 1875. Smith includes Julia Child, Nancy Reagan, Gloria Steinem, and Sylvia Plath among its alumnae.

As the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence, Marilyn taught a course in Creative Writing and judged a competition of very talented high school poets.

On February 23, Marilyn delivered a “loud, sassy and proud” performance, to a crowd of over a hundred fans, students, and faculty.