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Shin Yu Pai

Host, Ten Thousand Things

About

Shin Yu Pai [pronounced Shin Yee Pie] is the current Civic Poet for The City of Seattle (2023-24) and host of KUOW's podcast Ten Thousand Things (formerly The Blue Suit). Shin Yu is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and was shortlisted for a 2014 Stranger Genius in Literature. She is the author of eleven books of poetry, including most recently Virga (Empty Bowl, 2021). From 2015 to 2017, she served as the fourth Poet Laureate of the City of Redmond. Her essays and nonfiction writing have appeared in Atlas Obscura, NY Times, Tricycle, YES! Magazine, The Rumpus, Seattle Met, Zocalo Public Square, Gastronomica, City Arts, The Stranger, South Seattle Emerald, International Examiner, Ballard News-Tribune, Seattle’s Child, Seattle Globalist, and ParentMap. Shin Yu’s work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Canada. She is represented by Tyler Tsay at The Speakeasy Project.

Stories

  • Cage

  • Mask

  • Feeding Ghosts Cover.jpg

    In 'Feeding Ghosts,' author, illustrator Tessa Hull recounts a healing journey across generations

    In her latest book, Tessa Hulls traces her maternal lineage across three generations – each haunted by the tragedies of the past; her Chinese grandmother, Sun Yi, a journalist and author who fled Shanghai after the Communist Revolution. Then, to her mother Rose, the daughter of a Swiss diplomat, and finally, to Tessa herself, who is trying to bring peace to her family ghosts.

  • Ten Thousand Things - Episode 1 Graphic

    A name is a thing that is changeable

    When we come into this world we are given a name. It is etched in ink on our birth certificate, pasted onto our cubbies in pre-school, and signed onto paper to acknowledge our union with a beloved. A name has power.

  • caption: Books and Boba

    TTT Recommends: Books and Boba

    Fans of "Ten Thousand Things" might enjoy "Books and Boba" from the Potluck Podcast Collective. "Books and Boba" is a book club podcast all about books written by Asian and Asian diaspora authors.