Join us in welcoming new Diode intern Chi Kyu Lee.
Chi Kyu is a poet born and raised in Seoul. He recently graduated from Cornell University with a major in English and a minor in Arabic. He will be attending the MFA program at the University of Minnesota starting this fall. He is crazy about languages (make him practice Arabic or ASL!) and anything queer. He loves to read Asian-American, Arab-American, and Arabic literature.
Q&A
Diode: What are some major themes of your work?
Chi Kyu: Queerness, race, religion, intercultural dialogue (especially between the US, Korea, and the Arab world, often through travel narratives), and family are some major themes of my work.
D: Which artists/writers inform your work?
C K: Alice Fulton and Michael Prior (my instructors); Ocean Vuong, Chen Chen, Eduardo C. Corral, and other modern and contemporary Queer poets have influenced me.
D: What are you currently reading?
C K: I'm currently reading Ahlem Mosteghanemi's The Bridges of Constantine which I highly recommend!
Watch this space this summer for posts from Chi Kyu! 🖊️
