Chen Chen gave a Visiting Writer Lecture at the Arts Research Center on March 10, 2022.
Chen Chen is a writer, teacher, and editor. His second book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency(link is external), is available from BOA Editions and Bloodaxe Books (UK). A finalist for a Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize and a best book of 2022 according to the Boston Globe, Electric Lit, NPR, and others, it has also been named a 2023 Notable Book(link is external) by the American Library Association. His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA, 2017; Bloodaxe, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award(link is external) and won the Thom Gunn Award(link is external), among other honors. Chen is also the author of five chapbooks, including Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023), and the forthcoming book of craft essays, In Cahoots with the Rabbit God (Noemi Press, 2025). His work appears in many publications, including Poetry, Poem-a-Day, and three editions of The Best American Poetry (2015, 2019, & 2021). He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman(link is external), the National Endowment for the Arts(link is external), and United States Artists(link is external)
He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from Texas Tech University. He has taught in UMass Boston’s MFA program and at Brandeis University as the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence(link is external). Currently he teaches for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College, Stonecoast, and Antioch. With a brilliant team, he edits the journal Underblong(link is external); with Gudetama the lazy egg, he edits the lickety~split(link is external) He lives in frequently snowy Rochester, NY with his partner, Jeff Gilbert and their pug, Mr. Rupert Giles(link is external).