Seattle Civic Poet Shin Yu Pai Wins National Honor

Seattle Civic Poet Shin Yu Pai has nabbed the prestigious 2024 Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America for her work as a poet.

Pai, who was recently named one of Seattle magazine’s Most Influential People , was recognized for her artistic development and creativity, according to a statement, noting that much of her work has been influenced by her mother, Noko Pai.

“One discerns from reading Pai’s poetry the deep, intricate thinking that inhabiting the particular spaces of visual artist, essayist, and bookmaker brings,” according to Poetry Society of America judges. “All the while, she honors her teachers — from Naropa University to the citizens of the city of Redmond, where she served as Poet Laureate — not merely in epigraph, but in the way she scrutinizes and reimagines poetry and the poet herself.”

Pai’s work has been recognized by numerous organizations, including The Academy of American Poets, Artist Trust, 4Culture, and The Awesome Foundation, and has been exhibited across the United States, including at Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum, The American Jazz Museum, and The Three Arts Club of Chicago. She is also the author of 13 books.

Pai is also the creator and host of Ten Thousand Things , an award-winning podcast on Asian American stories that she writes and produces for KUOW, Seattle’s NPR affiliate.

Ten Thousand Things is created and hosted by Shin Yu Pai and produced by KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio in Seattle.

Photo courtesy of Shin Yu Lai

“Once, I believed that I had no ambition. Or, rather, I misunderstood it entirely,” Pai says in the statement. “I thought that the privilege of the gift is to simply practice, whether or not that work circulates in the world. But there is much wrapped up in the sharing of one’s creative and cultural practices, as they can express the best parts of being human, the wisdom we have the opportunity to glean for ourselves and transmit to another.”

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