Workshop Description: Every story is a diaspora story, and every diaspora story is speculative. In this class, we’ll discuss perspectives on diaspora narratives and their role in challenging western storytelling conventions, discover the speculative diaspora form and its potential, and explore the speculative diaspora through writing prompts and a collective storytelling exercise.
About the Instructor:
Kyla-Yến Huỳnh Giffin (they/them) is a queer and trans, biracial, Vietnamese American diaspora writer whose work revolves around themes of dreaming, fantasizing, and futurizing, and focuses on topics of diaspora, transness, ecology, empire, and intergenerational histories. They are a Press Editor for Half Mystic Press, a Co-Coordinator for Sundress Publications’ Poets in Pajamas reading series, and an Associate Editor for Iron Horse Literary Review. Kyla-Yến’s work has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best Small Fictions, and has appeared in The Offing, Oroboro, fifth wheel press, Vănguard, and other publications. They have been awarded residencies, workshops, and/or fellowships from Tin House, the Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA), Seventh Wave, Abode Press, and more. You can visit Kyla-Yến's author page at www.kylayenhuynhgiffin.com, and find them on Instagram @yenshrine.
Required Materials: Something to write with/on or type on.