“Thank you to Marcia Pankake. This is incredible, to dedicate space and time and resources to poetry in our culture.” —Sun Yung Shin

The 14th Annual Pankake Poetry reading, named for librarian Marcia Pankake, took place on April 4, 2023. Poet and cultural worker Sun Yung Shin read from her latest book of poetry, “The Wet Hex,” a finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Book Award for poetry. She described it as a book “about what our ancestors are asking of us.” Our audience, both in person and online, listened with rapt attention as she read.

“How did God make his hands small enough to form the faces of so many soldiers? / How did he concoct my family—from rope or broth? / A child can be renamed a thousand times, or denied the dignity altogether. / Die without one, live without one.”
—Excerpt from An Orphan Considers the Hand of God, by Sun Yung Shin

To hear more of her work, please enjoy the event video. Learn more about Sun Yung Shin from her website.

Additional photos of the event are available to view and share. Photos by Luke Logan.

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Thank you to the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries for sponsoring events in the Friends Forum: A Series for Curious Minds. These thought-provoking and intellectually engaging programs enrich both the campus and community. Not a member? Please consider supporting the Friends of the Libraries!

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