When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Galleys available: national mailing to key review/media outlets 4-5 months prior to publication. National advertising: Poets & Writers, American Poets, the Academy of American Poets newsletter, Rain Taxi, and Redactions. National print campaign: 100+ finished books will be mailed to key review outlets, specifically targeting Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The LA Times, Poets & Writers Magazine, The Rumpus, Huffington Post Poetry, Bookforum, LA Review of Books, PBS Newshour, NPR, etc. Outreach to blogs and online outlets for category features, including Buzzfeed, Bustle, etc. for such themes as LGBT (Pride Month), Asian American poets, etc. Buy-ins to relevant academic conferences, trade shows, and publications: American Library Association Annual Meeting, CBSD Sales and Academic catalogs, etc. Spring announcements will be submitted to Publishers Weekly. Online/social media campaign: Extensive promotion through BOA's website and blog; Facebook (6,500+ contacts), Twitter (6,100 followers), Instagram (1,500+ followers), and Pinterest (550+ followers) accounts; print and e-postcards; print and e-materials; and print and e-catalogs. Electronic postcards to announce book publication will be sent to Chen's academic contacts, bookstore contacts, and literary bloggers. Electronic newsletter feature will be emailed to BOA's database of 6,500+ contacts. Ebook will be available at the same time as print publication to maximize sales. Ebook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed. Publisher and author will be promoting both e and p through social media. Author will attend the AWP Conference 2017 in Washington, DC, where he will have an author signing. Chen also regularly attends the Dodge Poetry Festival, the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and the Round Top Poetry Festival in Texas. Plans for a multi-city book tour, including such places as Charleston, SC, and in Texas and the Northeast. Chen has strong personal and professional contacts in such places as Amherst, MA, Newton, MA, Syracuse, NY, and Lubbock, TX, where he will likely set up readings and author events. He is particularly well known at LHUCA, an art gallery in Lubbock, TX, which has a reading series; Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX; Barnes & Noble in Lubbock, TX; Newtonville Books in Newton, MA; Trident Bookstore in Boston, MA; and Amherst Books in Amherst, MA. Possible joint readings and events with Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press), Bruce Smith (University of Chicago Press), William Wenthe (LSU Press), Aracelis Girmay (BOA Editions), Sarah Gambito (Persea Books), Craig Morgan Teicher (BOA Editions), Joseph O. Legaspi (Cavankerry Press), David Tomas Martinez (Sarabande), Solmaz Sharif (Copper Canyon Press), Hieu Minh Nguyen (Coffee House Press), and Kaveh Akbar (Alice James Books). Blurbs and endorsements from Jericho Brown and other acclaimed poets. Promotion through the author's social media platforms and website: www.chenchenwrites.com.

This award-winning debut interrogates the fragile, inherited ways of approaching love and family from Asian American, immigrant, and queer perspectives.In this ferocious and tender debut, Chen Chen investigates inherited forms of love and family--the strained relationship between a mother and son, the cost of necessary goodbyes--all from Asian American, immigrant, and queer perspectives. Holding all accountable, this collection fully embraces the loss, grief, and abundant joy that come with charting one's own path in identity, life, and love. In the Hospital My mother was in the hospital & everyone wanted to be my friend. But I was busy making a list: good dog, bad citizen, short skeleton, tall mocha. Typical Tuesday. My mother was in the hospital & no one wanted to be her friend. Everyone wanted to be soft cooing sympathies. Very reasonable pigeons. No one had the time & our solution to it was to buy shinier watches. We were enamored with what our wrists could declare. My mother was in the hospital & I didn't want to be her friend. Typical son. Tall latte, short tale, bad plot, great wifi in the atypical cafe. My mother was in the hospital & she didn't want to be her friend. She wanted to be the family grocery list. Low-fat yogurt, firm tofu. She didn't trust my father to be it. You always forget something, she said, even when I do the list for you. Even then. Chen Chen was born in Xiamen, China, and grew up in Massachusetts. His work has appeared in two chapbooks and in such publications as Poetry, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Best of the Net, and The Best American Poetry. The recipient of the 2016 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, he has been awarded fellowships from Kundiman, the Saltonstall Foundation, Lambda Literary, and in 2015, he was a finalist for the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships. He earned his BA at Hampshire College and his MFA at Syracuse University. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD in English and Creative Writing at Texas Tech University. Chen lives in Lubbock, Texas, with his partner, Jeff Gilbert, and their pug dog, Rupert Giles.