Workshop#1: Shawn Wong

Professor Wong's second novel, American Knees, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1995 (Scribner paperback, 1996). Author Terry McMillan wrote, "I called friends to read them certain passages. This should be required reading." Novelist Gish Jen noted, "This is a novel no nice Chinese boy would write." His first novel, Homebase (Reed & Cannon, 1979; reprinted by Plume/New American Library, 1990), won both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the 15th Annual Governor's Writers Day Award of Washington.

He is also the editor or co-editor of several anthologies of Asian American literature, including the widely acclaimed AIIIEEEEE! An Anthology of Asian American Writers (Howard University Press, 1974, and reprinted in four different editions by three different publishers in the 25 year history of the book). Writer Ishmael Reed, in his "alternative" list of significant milestones in the last century, wrote in The San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, December 19, 1999, "[Aiiieeeee!] rescued Asian American literature from it reputation as being exotic, quaint, and missionary."

Wong also co-edited The Big Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature (Meridian/NAL, 1991) and Literary Mosaic: Asian American Literature (HarperCollins, 1995). He is co-editor of the Before Columbus Foundation Fiction/Poetry Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards, 1980-1990, two volumes of contemporary American multicultural poetry and fiction (W.W. Norton, 1992).

In addition to the publication of his poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews in numerous periodicals and anthologies, Wong has had his screenplays and a play produced. His fiction has been translated into German, Italian, and Chinese. Wong also co-wrote the screenplay for his novel American Knees for Celestial Pictures. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy. He was featured in the 1997 PBS documentary, "Shattering the Silences."

Workshop #2: Yi-miao Huang

Yi-Miao Huang's master's thesis "Together: Taiwanese American Lesbians in the U.S." looks at the life experiences of ten Taiwanese lesbians living in the U.S. Her research provides a general overview of Taiwan's LGBT movement and examines how it is related to the women interviewed. Her research also focuses on issues of multiple identities--nationality, race, gender, and sexuality.

Furthermore, she looks at issues of community belonging and formation among Taiwanese American lesbians. She examines how "becoming out" characterizes their interactions with various communities. Finally, she turns to issues of lesbian gender identities and sees how Taiwanese and Taiwanese American lesbian gender cultures provide answers toward more liberating and progressive communities.

Yi-Miao Huang just finished her master's degree in women's studies at the George Washington University in January 2001. She is interested in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) studies and activism. She interned at GLAAD (the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) for one and a half years and focused on the representation of LGBT people of color in the media. She plans to work in LGBT organizations in the U.S. for several years and devote herself to Taiwanese LGBT activism in the long future).

Workshop #3: Glenn Omatsu

Glenn Omatsu is a graduate of East Los Angeles College and University of California, Santa Cruz. Mr. Omatsu is co-editor for Asian Americans: The Movement and the Moment, a book published by UCLA's Asian American Studies Center, that details the history of social activism among Asian Americans. He teaches Asian American Studies 345, "Contemporary Experience of Asian Americans" during Fall Semester. During this past summer, he taught an introductory Asian American class and a developmental reading and writing class for the CSUN Summer Bridge Program, which for the past ten years has assisted more than 2,000 entering freshman of color to succeed at CSUN. This summer marked the first year that Asian American students were recruited for the program.

Glenn is also a staff member of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center and is active with campus, community and labor groups and solidarity networks. At UCLA, he serves as associate editor of Amerasian Journal, research publication in Asian American Studies, and editor of Cross Currents, newsmagazine of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. He also teaches classes on investigative journalism and Asian American Social Movements.

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    Sponsored by
Taiwanese United Foundation South California; Taiwanese American Foundation