Friends & Neighbors: Rounding Out 2011

Here are a few exciting tidbits of news from the LR community to round out our last day of posts before hiatus (which takes effect tonight, along with the submissions deadline for Issue 4!  Don’t forget to send your work in—the system will be open until 11:59 pm EST).

Videopoem for Kenji C. Liu’s “A Son Writes Back”

LR contributor Kenji C. Liu sent us a link to this awesome video he created for his poem “A Son Writes Back” (the most recent version of which appeared in Issue 2). The video combines an audio performance of Kenji’s poem with musical accompaniment by Jason Jong.  According to its caption on Vimeo, the visuals in the piece are footage from “a US Air Force propaganda film portraying aerial attacks on Imperial Japan during World War II.”  Watch the embedded version below, or follow the links beneath it to watch on Vimeo.

(A Son Writes Back – Poetry by Kenji C. Liu – Kou Xiang by Jason Jong from Kenji Liu on Vimeo).

W. Todd Kaneko Featured by the Los Angeles Review

Not only does Issue 3 contributor W. Todd Kaneko’s work appear in the 10th issue of the Los Angeles Review, but the magazine recently featured his poem “Remembering Minidoka” online as one of the issue’s “highlights”!  To read the piece, click here.  Many congrats to Todd on this honor.

Bao Phi’s Sông I Sing Reviewed in the New York Times

The heading says it all: Bao Phi’s collection, which Greg Choy reviewed for us last week, has been reviewed (and highly praised), by The New York Times.  Our congratulations to Bao on these well-deserved accolades.

Melissa R. Sipin responds to Kimiko Hahn

Issue 3 contributor Melissa R. Sipin was inspired enough by Wendy’s interview with Kimiko Hahn (and by the APR interview that Wendy references) that she wrote a poem in response!  She’s shared it on her blog.  Thanks, Melissa, for your thoughtful engagement with Kimiko’s words!