{{short description|Chinese American author and scholar (born 1949)}}{{Infobox writer | name = Shawn K. Wong | image = Shawn Wong, writer, San Francisco, 1975.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = August 11, 1949 | birth_place = Oakland, California | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = {{flatlist| * Writer * editor * professor }} | nationality = | period = | genre = | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers'' | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | website = }} '''Shawn K. Wong''' is a Chinese American author and scholar. He has served as the Professor of English, Director of the University Honors Program (2003–06), Chair of the Department of English (1997–2002), and Director of the Creative Writing Program (1995–97) at the University of Washington, where he has been on the faculty since 1984 and teaches courses covering critical theory, Asian American studies, which he is considered a pioneer in, and fiction writing. Wong received his undergraduate degree in English at the University of California Berkeley (1971)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://english.washington.edu/people/shawn-wong|title=Shawn Wong|publisher=Department of English {{!}} University of Washington|website=english.washington.edu|access-date=2016-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621194055/https://english.washington.edu/people/shawn-wong|archive-date=2018-06-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> and a master's degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University (1974).<ref name=":0" />
== Writings == thumb|left|Shawn Wong in San Francisco, California, 1975 Wong's first novel, ''Homebase'', published by Reed and Cannon (1979),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvqgBwAAQBAJ|title=AfroAsian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics|last1=Raphael-Hernandez|first1=Heike|last2=Steen|first2=Shannon|date=2006-11-01|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814776902|language=en}}</ref> won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award<ref name="Shawn Wong — Humanities Washington">{{Cite web|url=http://www.humanities.org/programs/speakers/current-speakers/shawn_wong|title=Shawn Wong — Humanities Washington|website=www.humanities.org|access-date=2016-05-03|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416060816/http://www.humanities.org/programs/speakers/current-speakers/shawn_wong/|archivedate=2016-04-16}}</ref> and the 15th Annual Governor's Writers Day Award of Washington.<ref name="Shawn Wong — Humanities Washington"/> His second novel, ''American Knees'', first published by Simon & Schuster in 1996,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://english.washington.edu/research/publications/american-knees|title=American Knees {{!}} Department of English {{!}} University of Washington|website=english.washington.edu|access-date=2016-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621221255/https://english.washington.edu/research/publications/american-knees|archive-date=2018-06-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> was adapted into an independent feature film entitled ''Americanese'' (2010),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theredbadgeproject.org/faculty/shawn-wong/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904152759/http://theredbadgeproject.org/faculty/shawn-wong/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-09-04|title=Shawn Wong|website=The Red Badge Project|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref> written and directed by Eric Byler<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.washington.edu/news/2006/10/25/film-based-on-novel-by-uw-professor-shawn-wong-to-be-distributed-nationally/|author=Catherine O'Donnell|title=Film based on novel by UW professor Shawn Wong to be distributed nationally|work=UW Today|publisher=University of Washington|access-date=2016-05-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621194021/http://www.washington.edu/news/2006/10/25/film-based-on-novel-by-uw-professor-shawn-wong-to-be-distributed-nationally/|archive-date=2018-06-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> and produced by Lisa Onodera.<ref name=":1" /> The book was re-issued in 2005 by University of Washington Press.
Wong explained in an interview the title "American Knees": "When I was a child, kids used to come up to me and ask, 'What are you: Chinese, Japanese or Americanese?", while some asked if I was "Chinese, Japanese or dirty knees?"<ref name=":1"/>
"I never really knew what that meant when I was a kid," Wong says, "but I knew I didn't like it."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=27665|title=University of Washington News|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616002611/http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=27665|archivedate=2010-06-16}}</ref>
Wong is also co-editor of six multicultural literary anthologies including the pioneering anthology ''Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/04/30/1974/|title=Year 114 – 1974: Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers edited by Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada, and Shawn Hsu Wong {{!}} 150 Years in the Stacks|website=libraries.mit.edu|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref> (reprinted in four different editions), ''Literary Mosaic: Asian American and Asian Diasporas, Cultures, Identities, Representations,'' and ''The Big Aiiieeeee!'' He is co-editor of ''Before Columbus Foundation Fiction/Poetry Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards, 1980-1990'' – two volumes of contemporary American multicultural poetry and fiction.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.beforecolumbusfoundation.com/foundation-media/|title=Foundation Media {{!}} Before Columbus Foundation|website=www.beforecolumbusfoundation.com|access-date=2016-05-03|archive-date=2020-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501055556/http://www.beforecolumbusfoundation.com/foundation-media/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Wong has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship<ref name=":1" /> and a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Italy.<ref name=":1" /> He was featured in the 1997 PBS documentary ''Shattering the Silences'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gailpellettproductions.com/shattering-the-silences-the-case-for-minority-faculty/|title=Gail Pellett Productions|last=|first=|date=2016-05-03|website=Shattering the Silences: The Case for Minority Faculty|publisher=Gail Pellett Productions|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref> and in the Bill Moyers' PBS documentary ''Becoming American: The Chinese Experience'', in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://billmoyers.com/content/becoming-american-the-chinese-experience-no-turning-back/|title=No Turning Back {{!}} BillMoyers.com|website=BillMoyers.com|language=en-US|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref> He is also featured in the 2005 documentary ''What's Wrong With Frank Chin?''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2005/film/reviews/what-s-wrong-with-frank-chin-1200526564/|title=Review: 'What's Wrong with Frank Chin?'|last=Harvey|first=Dennis|date=2005-04-13|website=Variety|language=en-US|access-date=2016-05-03}}</ref>
Wong also serves as consulting and contributing editor for ''Transtext(e)s-Transcultures: A Journal of Global Cultural Studies''.
==Career==
Shawn Wong specializes in Creative Writing and Asian American studies.<ref name=":0"/> Since 1972, he has taught at several colleges and universities, including Mills College at Northeastern University, University of California at Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, and the University of Washington. He has also taught at the University of Tübingen (Germany), Jean Moulin University (Lyon), and at the University of Washington Rome Center (Italy).
He is on the faculty of the Red Badge Project,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://theredbadgeproject.org/faculty/|title=Our Faculty - The Red Badge Project|newspaper=The Red Badge Project|access-date=2016-10-14}}</ref> which teaches storytelling to veterans suffering from PTSD, depression, or anxiety disorders.
== Bibliography ==
===Novel=== *''Homebase'' (1979). Reed & Cannon. *''American Knees'' (1995). Simon & Schuster.
===Editor=== *''Asian Diasporas: Cultures, Identities, Representations'' (with Robbie Goh), Hong Kong University Press, 2004 *''The Literary Mosaic: An Anthology of Asian American Literature'', Harper Collins, 1995 *''The Before Columbus Foundation Fiction Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards 1980-1990'' (with Ishmael Reed and Kathryn Trueblood), W. W. Norton Co., 1992 *''The Before Columbus Foundation Poetry Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards 1980-1990'' (with J. J. Phillips, Ishmael Reed, Gundars Strads), W .W. Norton Co., 1992 *''The Big Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Chinese American and Japanese American Literature'' (with Jeffery Paul Chan, Frank Chin, and Lawson Fusao Inada), Meridian/NAL, 1991 *''Yardbird Reader Volume 3'' (with Frank Chin), Yardbird Publishing Inc., 1974 *''Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers'' (with Frank Chin, Jeffery Paul Chan, Lawson Fusao Inada), Howard University Press, 1974; most recent re-issue by Meridian, 1997
== See also == {{Portal|Literature}} *Chinese American literature *List of Asian American writers
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303175905/http://depts.washington.edu/engl/people/profile.php?id=67 Shawn Wong profile] on University of Washington website *[http://www.nwasianweekly.com/200726019/bookfest20072619.htm Shawn Wong discusses "American Knees" becoming a movie, at Rainbow Bookfest (minority authors)]{{dead link|date=March 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in ''Northwest Asian Weekly'' * [https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/show/1166 Interview with Shawn Wong] by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, August 23, 2010
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Shawn}} Category:1949 births Category:Writers from Oakland, California Category:Writers from Seattle Category:Living people Category:American academics of English literature Category:American academics of Chinese descent Category:San Francisco State University alumni Category:UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Category:University of Washington faculty Category:American novelists of Chinese descent Category:American male novelists Category:Novelists from Washington (state) Category:American male non-fiction writers