Shin Yu Pai
Host, Ten Thousand Things
About
Shin Yu Pai [pronounced Shin Yee Pie] is the current Civic Poet for The City of Seattle (2023-24) and host of KUOW's podcast Ten Thousand Things (formerly The Blue Suit). Shin Yu is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and was shortlisted for a 2014 Stranger Genius in Literature. She is the author of eleven books of poetry, including most recently Virga (Empty Bowl, 2021). From 2015 to 2017, she served as the fourth Poet Laureate of the City of Redmond. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Atlas Obscura, NY Times, Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, Seattle Met, Zocalo Public Square, Gastronomica, City Arts, The Stranger, South Seattle Emerald, International Examiner, Ballard News-Tribune, Seattle’s Child, Seattle Globalist, and ParentMap. Shin Yu’s work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Canada. She is represented by Tyler Tsay at The Speakeasy Project.
Podcasts
Stories
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Arts & Life
In 'Feeding Ghosts,' author, illustrator Tessa Hull recounts a healing journey across generations
In her latest book, Tessa Hulls traces her maternal lineage across three generations – each haunted by the tragedies of the past; her Chinese grandmother, Sun Yi, a journalist and author who fled Shanghai after the Communist Revolution. Then, to her mother Rose, the daughter of a Swiss diplomat, and finally, to Tessa herself, who is trying to bring peace to her family ghosts.
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Arts & Life
A name is a thing that is changeable
When we come into this world we are given a name. It is etched in ink on our birth certificate, pasted onto our cubbies in pre-school, and signed onto paper to acknowledge our union with a beloved. A name has power.
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Arts & Life
TTT Recommends: Books and Boba
Fans of "Ten Thousand Things" might enjoy "Books and Boba" from the Potluck Podcast Collective. "Books and Boba" is a book club podcast all about books written by Asian and Asian diaspora authors.
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Arts & Life
TTT Recommends: Shoes Off
We want to introduce you to a new podcast you may like, "Shoes Off." Join hosts Susie An and Esther Yoon-Ji Kang as they hang out with badass Asians and ask them to redefine “sexy” on their own terms.
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Arts & Life
Voice
This is a story about the way we make a statement.
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Arts & Life
Bike
Anti-Asian hate crimes spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic. And then the Atlanta spa shooting scarred a community already suffering.
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Arts & Life
A book becomes a movement
Shawn Wong discovered the first Japanese American novel, No-No Boy, at a used bookstore for 50 cents, after being told by his English professors that Asian American literature didn’t exist.
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Arts & Life
Jizo Bodhisattva
During the mizu kuyo ritual for pregnancy loss, a small Jizo Bodhisattva statue enshrines ceremonial remains of a lost child. Following Shin Yu’s miscarriage in 2012, she had a mizu kuyo ceremony to process her grief.
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Arts & Life
Steelhead
Dylan Tomine has a passion for steelhead trout. Or an obsession. Or an addiction.
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Arts & Life
Time Capsule
On the eve of selling her family’s house, Donna Miscolta’s daughter had a special request: Go to the stairwell and pull back the loose board on the bottom step.