Gotham Book Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 21 (2023) Nominee
Lisa Hsiao Chen
リサ・シャオ・チェン
Risa Hsiao Chen
Aliases:
Lisa Chen
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Nationality
- Taiwanese, American
- Languages
- English, Chinese
- Residence History
- Taipei, Taiwan (birthplace) → Brooklyn, New York, United States (residence)
Career
- Occupations
- Writer, Poet
- Active Years
- 2007-
- Affiliations
- Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (Workspace Program), Blue Mountain Center (residency), Center for Fiction (Emerging Writers Fellow)
- Influenced By
- Hokusai (influence on motifs and imagery), Viktor Shklovsky (concept of ostranenie/defamiliarization)
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California, Berkeley | — | — | BA | — | United States |
| University of Iowa | — | — | MFA | — | United States |
University of California, Berkeley
Degree:
BA
Country:
United States
University of Iowa
Degree:
MFA
Country:
United States
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Book Award for Poetry | Mouth | — | Association for Asian American Studies | winner |
| 2018 | Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award | — | — | Rona Jaffe Foundation | winner |
| 2023 | Carol Shields Prize for Fiction (longlisted) | Activities of Daily Living | — | Carol Shields Prize for Fiction | longlisted |
Book Award for Poetry
2009
Work:
Mouth
Organization:
Association for Asian American Studies
Result:
winner
Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award
2018
Organization:
Rona Jaffe Foundation
Result:
winner
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction (longlisted)
2023
Work:
Activities of Daily Living
Organization:
Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
Result:
longlisted
Awards & Nominations
PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
1 appearances
-
Edition 48 (2023) Nominee
Works
Major Works
Mouth
2007 PoetryA poetry collection drawing on fragments from spam emails, advertisements, conversation, and visual imagery; explores meaning emerging at the intersection of form and everyday language.
everyday lifefragmentation of languagevisual imagery
Activities of Daily Living
2022 AutofictionA novel blending autobiographical elements that examines identity and immigrant experience through everyday activities and memory; characterized by intersecting personal fragments and social context.
identityimmigrant experiencememory and the everyday
Bibliography
- Mouth (2007)
- Activities of Daily Living (2022)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- autobiographical and experimental narrationuse of defamiliarization/ostranenie
- Recurring Motifs
- details of daily lifefragmented texts like emails and adsmemory and materiality
Legacy
Recognized for expressing immigrant experience and fragments of daily life through an experimental idiom. Noted for the poetry collection Mouth and the autofiction Activities of Daily Living; regarded as a significant emerging voice in Asian American literature.
Academic Societies
- Association for Asian American Studies (related)
Quotes
-
I'm interested in written forms animated by what Viktor Shklovsky called ostranenie, or 'making strange.'
Source: Interview in Sonora Review (2018)
Trivia
- Portions of the poetry collection Mouth were inspired by everyday fragments such as email spam folders and advertisements.
- Has held residencies at LMCC's Workspace Program and Blue Mountain Center.
- Received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award in 2018.