Ken Chen

Ken Chen
Chen in 2024
Born1979 (age 46–47)
San Diego, California, U.S.
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (BA)
Yale University (JD)
Occupations
  • Poet
  • lawyer

Ken Chen (born 1979) is an American poet and lawyer.

Early life and education

Chen was born in 1979 in San Diego, California, to a Taiwanese American family. Chen's parents are immigrants from Taiwan. Chen grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2001, Chen graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with his Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature. As an undergraduate, he earned the university's Kenneth Priestley Award, given for highest distinction in leadership. Chen then attended Yale Law School and earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Yale in 2005.

Career

Chen was an editor of Arts & Letters Daily while at Berkeley and worked at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP in New York City after law school. He was the Executive Director of the Asian American Writers' Workshop. from 2008 to 2019. He is currently an Assistant Professor and the Associate Director of Creative Writing at Barnard College.

His writing has been published in Art Asia Pacific, Boston Review of Books, Manoa, Field, Pleiades, and Barrow Street, Bridge, Radical Society, 5 Fingers Review, and Palimpsest.

His poetry collection Juvenilia was selected as the winner of the 2010 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition by Louise Glück, who wrote, "The miracle of this book is the degree to which Ken Chen manages to be both exhilaratingly modern (anti-catharsis, anti-epiphany) while at the same time never losing his attachment to voice, and the implicit claims of voice: these are poems of intense feeling. . . . Like only the best poets, Ken Chen makes with his voice a new category."

Personal life

Chen lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Awards

Works

References

  1. ↑ "世界新聞網". Archived from the original on 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
  2. ↑ "Resume of Ken Chen kenchen.org". Archived from the original on September 25, 2018. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Ken Chen Named Executive Director of Asian American Writers' Workshop | Daily News | Poets & Writers". pw.org. 7 April 2008. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  4. ↑ "Announcing the departure of AAWW Executive Director Ken Chen". Asian American Writers' Workshop. 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  5. ↑ "Ken Chen | Barnard College". barnard.edu. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  6. ↑ "University of Central Missouri". ucmo.edu. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  7. ↑ Bachman, M. (2002). Five Fingers Review. Five Fingers Poetry. ISBN 9781880627099. ISSN 0898-0233. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  8. ↑ Juvenilia. 2010-04-20. ISBN 978-0-300-16008-6.
  9. ↑ "Juvenilia by Ken Chen". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2026-05-20.
  10. ↑ "The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize 2005, Two Poems by Ken Chen". waywiser-press.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  11. ↑ "Glück Picks Ken Chen For Yale Younger Poets Prize | Poets and Writers". pw.org. 29 May 2009. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  12. ↑ "you are here: Congratulations to Ken Chen, Recipient of the 2009 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award". apapoetry.blogspot.com. 26 May 2009. Retrieved 2016-06-20.