Good News from Ireland!

Wow! Just found out I was a commended author for the 2012 Sean O'Faolain Prize. It's an international literary battle royal. Almost 1000 entries and my latest short story, "Like Bits of Broken Glass," was one of the top 24. Just giddy right now. I think I can play with the big boys! More here! :)

A quick word on my audience for Seasonal Velocities and every other gollydarned thing I write.

It is absurd to assume lessons learned from being trans, female, queer, or a person of color should only be useful to trans, female, queer people of color. If we hope our words can make this world a wiser and more compassionate place, then we must send our words with blessings to reach everyone in this world. If we say our stories are just as indispensably human as anyone else’s, then they must thrive as other stories do—in new and novel readings by readers who live far beyond whatever curvature our own horizons follow.

Order Seasonal Velocities from Trans-Genre Press! :)

Cal Poly Pomona Commencement Address and Thoughts for Lavender Grads Everywhere.

On May 31, I had the honor of addressing Cal Poly Pomona's Lavender Graduation. This is my message to all LGBTIQQ graduates: Embrace the strengths and skills that living queer has given you and use them--employ them not just to survive, nor even to succeed--but to redefine what success can be.

To Queer the American Dream

Thank you for allowing me to be part of this day. Congratulations! I am honored to be speaking in front of you, the Cal Poly Pomona’s Lavender Graduating Class of 2012. I’d like to thank Cal Poly Pomona’s Division of Student Affairs. I’d like to thank the Pride Center. But most of all, I want to thank you, for all your hard work and achievement. You did it! Look at you!

So, I look at all of you, ready to take the next step outward—and wow—we have a world to look forward to—don't we? Hey any of you expecting to get a nice job, protected by your union, with a good health plan, and some overtime? Think you’re gonna work hard at the office in order to raise a family, send them off to college, travel a little in your retirement?

Yeah?  A couple days ago NPR started a whole series called “American Dreams,” which no doubt is timed to come out near graduation. Their first two titles? “American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality” and “More Americans Putting The 'Dream' On Hold.” Way to get a generation going, don't you think? To be fair, the data looks grim.  Let’s see… The banking system has collapsed. 11 million people owe more on their mortgage than their homes are worth. Detroit is in danger of turning off half its lights because it can't pay the electric bill.  In the meantime, Afghanistan is costing us three hundred million dollars. A day.

I have students who are going out into the world, and they’re terrified about not having the things their parents had. They worry that the same opportunity—for a good job a career, a comfy salary, a house—won't be there. And, judging from what the mainstream news (and even NPR) says, they won’t. To be honest, I’m a little worried for them. I mean, I hear even pharmacy school grads are having problems finding jobs. 

But you. I’m not worried. Not one bit! See—'cuz you weren’t mainstream, anyway.

Transfeminist Perspectives

A. Finn Enke's superb anthology Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies (Temple University Press) has just come out. I am extremely honored to be included in the anthology and even given the last word. There are some incredible writers within the pages, and I hope you check it out.

I especially like the anthology because it refuses to stay within expected academic confines. Often, when a field of study branches either into or out from another, it becomes curiously conservative (we can be even better academic theory-weenies than you). It is as if, in asserting diversity, marginalized scholars feel compelled to adopt the language of the oppressor. Or, perhaps those who make the best mimics are the ones who get recognized. Suddenly there is the call for a canon, a tradition, and whatever the cause, what results are nearsighted useless turf wars that neither serve to advance diversity, nor present any alternatives to marginalization.

Enke's selection refuses to do this. In fact, her selection seeks to avoid the appearance of overarching theory, or even agreement. And what follows is not rabble and chaos, but a deeper sense of shared, if not purpose, respect and sentiment. Enke trusts not simply her writers' ability to express themselves, but also their ability to look sideways and forward to places where there are still no answers, and the resonances that result are far more challenging and thought-provoking than any slapdash, predictable platitude.

Exploding Toothpaste

Here's a song for traveling and our friends at Airport Security. :) The chords are a bit off--but if you want, and I have my guitar around, I can sing it for ya! ;)



Exploding Toothpaste 

There’s two hours left before my plane leaves the gate G
But I’m worried that I might be already late Em
Cuz it’s an orange alert and the line to the x-ray machine C D
goes around and around     D
and the TSA rent-a-cop is yelling again
saying keep the line moving like we’re already in
the Soviet Union where everyone says
they could pull you into a room to be never seen again

And I’m really really glad the plane doesn’t explode
But I’ve been on many planes and truth to be told
Not a single plane blew up because a struggling musician
took her guitar on board. Or her toothpaste exploded.

But instead of protesting and making scene C
I just take off my shoes and walk through the machine G
And I wonder how many more lines it will take C
how many more lines, how many more lines… D
You can’t go anywhere without your picture ID
In the home of the brave and the land of the free
What the hell’s the point of saluting the flag
when a mom must put her breast milk in a see-through plastic bag?

Now I got a nice suitcase with a lock on the side
but now all that means is I have something to hide
But since when is a government’s word good enough
to let a man I don't know search through all of my stuff?

And I know that some of you might say I’m being naïve
But I wonder is it gullible to say I believe
While we’re all so fucking worried about liquids and shoes
we should pay more attention to the freedoms we lose
‘cuz they say that we must do everything we must do
but Joseph McCarthy once seemed reasonable too
And I wonder will I ever see
why we’re giving up our freedom so that we can be free--

it’s exploding toothpaste!

we’re trading lives for oil but there’s exploding toothpaste
The ice caps are melting
but there’s exploding toothpaste
You can’t be free while there’s exploding toothpaste
I take off my shoes and pledge allegiance
to the United States of Exploding Toothpaste

My forthcoming book now has a Facebook page!

Now with nicer easier-to-remember name! Yay!


http://www.facebook.com/seasonalvelocities

Pre-release response for Seasonal Velocities has been wonderful! :) Yay!

Review of Seasonal Velocities from A. Finn Enke, Director of LGBT Studies at UW Madison! 

Ryka Aoki, Seasonal Velocities

Review comments by A. Finn Enke

"Seasonal Velocities is a startling gem of a book. With her characteristic honesty and a powerful, fierce grace, Ryka Aoki carries us through fear in the dark, the half-lives of scars, home, and hope. As vivid and unflinching as it is lyrical, this poetry delivers and demands sparkling truth even as it speaks of violence, longing and love. Rather than aiming to transcend, Aoki invites us to make alliance with all the contradictions of being human, to grow stories, to listen, and to build community despite everything."

Please consider pre-ordering Seasonal Velocities. 30% discount thru March, with release in April.