#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: Visiting Author Reading Series Presents Chen Chen

Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry. His work has appeared in two chapbooks and in publications such as Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, and The Best American Poetry. He has received fellowships from Kundiman, Lambda Literary, and the Saltonstall Foundation. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and is currently pursuing a PhD in English and Creative Writing at Texas Tech University.

Each year, the YMCA's Downtown Writers Center hosts more than 20 authors for free readings. In their first 17 years, they've hosted over 400 authors, from first-time novelists to Pulitzer Prize winners and Poet Laureates. Past guests have included such literary luminaries as Charles Simic, Ted Kooser, Cornelius Eady, Sapphire, Steve Almond, Dorianne Laux, Carl Dennis, and many others. 

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