Lantern Review: A Journal of Asian American Poetry

Contributor Bios

Kimberly Alidio is a poet, historian and educator. She works in academic critical ethnic studies to investigate questions about colonialism, sovereignty and freedom. She studied with Lorna Dee Cervantes at the VONA-Voices of Our Nation Writing Workshop and presently works with Hoa Nguyen in Austin, TX. She has a doctorate in U.S. history from the University of Michigan. A scholarly monograph in Filipino American Studies is under revision and a poetry chapbook is in its early stages. Poems have appeared in four magazines and journals with titles starting with the letter "M," which is marvelously mysterious, indeed.

JoAnn Balingit was born in Columbus, Ohio and grew up in Lakeland, Florida, the third child in a family of twelve children. She is author of Your Heart and How It Works (Spire Press, 2009), recipient of the 2010 Global Filipino Literary Award in poetry. Appointed Delaware's poet laureate in 2008, she teaches poetry classes for schools, libraries and community organizations throughout the state. JoAnn's poems have appeared in MiPOesias, Delaware Poetry Review, Harpur Palate, Kweli Journal, Salt Hill Journal, Smartish Pace, at Verse Daily and elsewhere. Her work is anthologized in Best New Poets 2007, DIAGRAM.2 (Del Sol Press), On the Mason-Dixon Line: Contemporary Delaware Writers (Univ. of Delaware Press) and in the forthcoming anthologies, An Endless Skyway (Ice Cube Press) and Voices of the Asian American Experience (Greenwood/ABC-CLIO).

Lek Borja is a poet/artist currently living in the Los Angeles County (CA). Her poems are in the current issues of Poetic Diversity, Lady Jane's Miscellany (San Francisco Bay Press), {m} Magazine, REM Magazine and Two Hawks Quarterly. Her chapbook Android is tentatively due to be published in Spring 2011 by Plan B Press.

Issue 2 | Winter 2011

Hailing from Virginia Beach, Alex Cena has spent 12 years working with various Asian American organizations, and now lives and works in Washington, DC as the Secondary School Programs Coordinator and DC Mentoring Coordinator for Asian American LEAD. He is one of the founders of Sulu DC.

Paul Csonka is a graduate student studying robotics at Stanford. He enjoys spending time trying to become a better photographer.

Anannya Dasgupta is a doctoral candidate in English at Rutgers University. Her poetry and photographs have appeared in Haggard and Halloo, Four and Twenty and Asia Writes. Her photos have appeared on book covers and have been exhibited in New Delhi.

Jason Fang has been doing landscape and portrait photography since 2000. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bethany Hana Fong is a 3.5 generation Japanese/Chinese-American currently trying to 'make it' living the start-up dream in Silicon Valley. The result of being transplanted from Colorado to Yosemite to the Bay, her formerly nature-dominated list of loves has grown to include the internets, good design, Asian transportation, and fresh kimchi.

Kathleen Hellen describes herself as hapa, half-Japanese, half-American—the child of the enemy amor. Her work has appeared in Frogpond; Hawai’i Review; Japanophile; Poetry International; Witness; and other journals. Her chapbook The Girl Who Loved Mothra was published in December 2010 by Finishing Line Press. Awards include: the Washington Square Review and Thomas Merton poetry prizes, as well as individual artist grants from Maryland and the city of Baltimore. She is a contributing editor for the Baltimore Review.