K-Ming Chang

K-Ming Chang (born circa 1998) is the author of poetry collection Past Lives, Future Bodies (as Kristin Chang, Black Lawrence Press 2018) and the novel Bestiary (One World, 2020). Bestiary was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2021.

K-Ming Chang
Born1997/1998 (age 22–23)[1]
Alma materSarah Lawrence College
Notable work
Past Lives, Future Bodies
Bestiary
Websitekmingchang.com

Early life

As a six-grader, Chang wrote a story about a girl who turns into a tiger; she later recalled it, humorously, as a "really terrible" story, yet contained the seeds of her eventual first novel, Bestiary.[2] Chang attended Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 2020.[3] At Sarah Lawrence, she worked with the writer Rattawut Lapcharoensap.[4]

Writing

Chang is the Micro editor at The Offing magazine.[5]

Past Lives, Future Bodies

Chang published Past Lives, Future Bodies as Kristin Chang in 2018 with Black Lawrence Press.[6][7][8] The chapbook takes up themes of matrilineality contrasted with "volatile masculinity", writes Luiza Flynn-Goodlett.[9] In her review, Flynn-Goodlett praised the "magic conjured in this collection—lyric intensity coupled with sharp political intellect", saying "Chang emerges as an urgent, sumptuous voice, a poet of numerous gifts and intellectual dexterity".[9] In The Rumpus, Torrin A. Greenhouse remarks on Chang's use of line breaks, saying they "become a blade, a letter's crease, a hinge opening the next line like a room. Her chapbook is a master class in the potential of enjambment, imbuing each break with the wonder of and trepidation of the unknown."[10]

Bestiary

Chang published her debut novel Bestiary in 2020.[11][2] She wrote the novel in her sophomore year in college while she was at home on summer break, taking summer courses on Asian American history. She sold the novel to One World, Chris Jackson's imprint at Random House, while still an undergraduate.[1]

The novel tells the story of three generations of women, Daughter, Mother and Grandmother, who move from Taiwan to Arkansas.[12] After hearing Mother tell the folktale of Hu Gu Po, a tiger spirit who eats children to try to become human, Daughter grows a tiger tail and develops powers she doesn't understand or know how to use.[2] In a review for The New York Times, Amil Niazi contrasts Bestiary with immigrant literature organized around nostalgia and other sentimentality: instead, Bestiary is "full of magic realism that reaches down your throat, grabs hold of your guts and forces a slow reckoning with what it means to be a foreigner, a native, a mother, a daughter — and all the things in between."[13]

Honors

In 2018, Chang was named a Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry by The Adroit Journal.[14] In 2019, Chang was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in the lesbian poetry category for her collection Past Lives, Future Bodies.[15] In 2020, she was awarded the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" prize (selected by previous honoree Justin Torres).[16] In 2021, her novel Bestiary was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.[17]

Personal life

Chang lives in New York, though has stayed with family in Montebello, California during the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]

References
  1. Chan, Vanessa (2020-09-30). "Completely Embodied: Talking with K-Ming Chang". The Rumpus. Archived from the original on 2020-12-18. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  2. Khan, Saira (2020-10-01). "K-Ming Chang's "Bestiary": A Debut Novel in Which Mythology Is Real and a Girl Turns Into a Tiger". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  3. "Kristin Chang '20 Named a 2018 Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry". www.sarahlawrence.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  4. Lue, Jen (September 29, 2020). "The Bodily History We Inherit: K-Ming Chang Interviewed by Jen Lue". BOMB Magazine. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  5. "K-Ming Chang". The Offing. Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  6. Womer, Brenna (2019-03-08). "Kristin Chang's "Past Lives, Future Bodies" reviewed by Brenna Womer". Tarpaulin Sky Magazine. Archived from the original on 2020-10-24. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  7. Lau, Travis Chi Wing. "Past Lives Future Bodies". Up the Staircase Quarterly. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  8. "Review of Past Lives, Future Bodies by Kristin Chang". Ember Chasm Review. 2020-07-02. Archived from the original on 2020-12-19. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  9. Flynn-Goodlett, Luiza (8 April 2019). "I Identify Sexually as Alive: A Review of Kristin Chang's 'Past Lives, Future Bodies'". The Adroit Journal. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  10. Greathouse, Torrin A. (2018-11-02). "A Thin-Bladed Grace: Kristin Chang's Past Lives, Future Bodies". The Rumpus. Archived from the original on 2020-12-18. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  11. Patrick, Bethann (2020-10-01). "Review: 'Bestiary,' an immigrant tale that puts the (filthy, brutal) realism in magical realism". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  12. Masad, Ilana (September 30, 2020). "This 'Bestiary' Lives In A Family's Multigenerational Stories". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  13. Niazi, Amil (2020-09-29). "'Bestiary' Offers a Compendium of Creatures, and Generations". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-01-17. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  14. Laberge, Peter (2018-03-22). "Announcing The Adroit Journal's 2018 Djanikian Scholars!". The Adroit Journal. Archived from the original on 2020-11-29. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  15. "The 2019 Lambda Literary Award Finalists Are Hereby Announced by Harriet Staff". Poetry Foundation. 2021-02-03. Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  16. "The National Book Foundation Announces 2020 5 Under 35 Honorees". National Book Foundation. 2020-09-21. Archived from the original on 2021-01-16. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  17. Liaw, Amanda (February 2, 2021). "Announcing the longlist for the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction". The PEN/Faulkner Foundation. Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
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