This year, Paisley Rekdal became the first writer of Asian descent to guest edit the Best American Poetry anthology series, which published its most recent edition this Fall. In an effort to celebrate the Asian American poets who appear in this year’s anthology, we teamed up with Paisley, the Asian American Literary Review, and the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center to present a series of 10 short readings by poets published in the anthology.

Arthur Sze | Brandon Som | Emily Yong | Hieu Minh Nguyen | Kaveh Bassiri | Khaled Mattawa | Matthew Olzmann | Monica Youn | Ryo Yamaguchi | Victoria Chang

You can purchase The Best American Poetry 2020 here on Bookshop.org.

Arthur Sze reads “Winter Stars”

Brandon Som reads “Shainadas”

Emily Yong reads “Opioid, Alchohol, Despair”

Hieu Minh Nguyen reads “Chasm”

Kaveh Bassiri reads “The Invention of I”

Khaled Mattawa reads “Qassida to the Statue of Sappho in Mytilini” and “Song of the Volunteer”

Matthew Olzmann reads “Letter to the Person Who, During the Q&A Session After the Reads, Asked for Career Advice”

Monica Youn reads “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphae/Sado)”

Ryo Yamaguchi reads “Reading, Not Reading”

Victoria Chang reads “Obit [Privacy—Died]”