Hmong Writer-in-Residence at SUN RAY LIBRARY!!

Coffee House Press and the Saint Paul Public Library are excited to announce that Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir (Coffee House Press, 2008), will be Sun Ray Library's writer-in-residence this Spring.

Kao Kalia Yang is a member of the Hmong ethnic minority. Her memoir, The Latehomecomer, was the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2009 Minnesota Book Award for Creative Nonfiction/Memoir. Her followup, The Song Poet (Metropolitan Books, 2016), is a tribute to both her father and to the Hmong tradition of storytelling.

As a speaker presenting to groups in K-12 public and private schools, universities and colleges, and various other community groups, Yang addresses the immigrant experience and helps facilitate storytelling both on and off the page. During the course of her residency, she’ll use the books, space, and community at Sun Ray to further develop her craft as a writer and storyteller.

Yang's residency is part of In The Stacks, a program developed by Coffee House Press. The two year old program has placed writers and artists in residencies at the Walker Art Center, American Craft Council, Quatrefoil Library, Poets House, American Swedish Institute, Hennepin County Library, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The goal of In The Stacks is to create a body of work that will inspire a broader public to engage with their local libraries in a new and meaningful way, and to encourage artists and the general public to think about libraries as creative spaces.

In The Stacks is part Books in Action, a broader initiative by Coffee House Press to publish works and develop programs that encourage and nurture literary arts beyond the page, highlighting people and organizations working to further interdisciplinary collaborations, reader engagement, and nontraditional means of accessing the reading experience.

“Each residency has generated a much different result, ranging from essays, fiction, and poetry to visual and performance art.” said Jay Peterson, the program's coordinator. “I’m looking forward to seeing how Kalia uses her time as a resident to both push forward current projects and to lay the groundwork for future creative work. We also hope to show artists on the East Side, whether young or not-so-young, that the library system can play a helpful role in their creative process.”

Peterson and staff from the Saint Paul Public Library chose the Sun Ray branch to highlight its newly renovated indoor and outdoor reading and community spaces. With an additional 2,500 square feet of indoor public space added in 2014, Sun Ray now has an outdoor reading garden, a quiet reading room, flexible study/meeting rooms, and a 900 square-foot community room with bathrooms and after-hours access.

Yang will give a public presentation on May 6th at 7pm at Sun Ray Library.