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I recently finished my MFA in Creative Writing and my department is having an event for on Wed. I have been thinking about how to mark the end of grad school while physically distancing and thought it would be fun to share some of my fav memories from the last 3.5yrs.

The first thing about the MFA is I have never written so much in my life. I have been writing since I was 15, but never so so intensely. Just flipping through my computer and I think I drafted around 15 stories, half of a novel, and about 7 poems. So many words

A lot of it is very rough and I spent a lot of time struggling to write so I'm kinda shocked? But it is cool to recognize just the amount of time I got to spent working on creating new things.

Grad school has been really difficult as a queer woman of color and immigrant. I struggled a lot with what has been going on in CanLit, racism, and microaggressions. But I also feel the last 3.5 years really helped me figure out my interests, voice, and tastes as a writer

So many of my good friends I know now are folks I met and have gotten to know better over the last 3.5 years. Not necessarily through my program but it's cool nonetheless.

Shout-outs to @LeaTaranto @fangirlflailing @actuallyreadbks @a_h_reaume @pipagaopoetry @TaniaDeRozario @jenfoo and many many others, including folks who are not on twitter congrats to my fellow grad class as well

My favourite semester is probably the summer of 2018 when I spent 3 months in China doing research on wuxia fiction. Some places visited: Mt.E'mei, Mt.Wudang, Shaolin, Mt. Qingcheng, Xi'an, Kaifeng, Fenghuang, Langzhong, Suzhou & Hangzhou

I'd like to read more about the research I did that summer. It was also a really difficult semester because I was dealing with racism, workplace bullying, and really threatening behaviour, which I wrote about using #racismincanlit. See this piece I wrote: http://carte-blanche.org/xiake-jianghu-wuxia-fiction-translations-racismincanlit/

Here's a link to one of my favourite stories I wrote during this time period (there are other favourites that I'm still revising and hope to be able to share eventually) http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wang_10_18/ 

one of my favourite poems I wrote during this time period is of course the first poem I have ever written about food... https://twitter.com/yilinwriter/status/1163630279140859904

I've always been into c-dramas, wuxia, and Chinese poetry, but when I started the MFA 3.5 years ago, it never occurred to me that I'd actually get the chance to take translation workshops. I ended up take 2 hybrid forms workshops and submitting some of my translations to both~

I'm really grateful to my friends in those workshops for giving me feedback as I tried to teach myself translation and figure out how translations can be workshopped in creative writing programs. Also folks like @myetcetera for talking to me about translation when I visited HK :)

Thx to the many writers, editors, and organizations I've got to work with as a translator since then, for your trust in me. A shout-out to friends in the Chinese diaspora translators group I started, #译派湖燕 #WanderingSparrows for being on this journey with me as well.

It's hard to believe because it feels like I have been at @RoomMagazine forever but I joined them at the end of my first term of grad school :) It was cool to be able to grow with Growing Room as their volunteer coordinator from 2017-2019. I'll be editing an issue of Room in 2021

I came into the program with an interest in teaching in higher ed, and thanks to the really amazing teach creative writing in high schools program that I took part in, I left wanting to teach teens, BIPOC folks, and immigrants in community settings.

Obligatory photos of some delicious food because YES I DID START A FOOD CLUB DURING THESE PAST 3 YEARS

^a student is always hungry and a student has got to eat

I also feel like I deserve elective credits from all the hours I spent showing up at random guest lectures in the Asian Studies department as the only one outside their department, because they made me feel seen

Some photos of places where I worked on my thesis...

More photos of me working on my thesis... I miss being able to write in cafes

So many firsts: speaking at my first lit festival (Growing Room) and my first con (Norwescon). Trips to many places in North America where I saw friends and/or attended events--Portland, Seattle, Toronto, and Ottawa