Distinctions & Awards

2021 California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellow

2021 Sonoma County Writers Camp BIPOC Fellow

2021 Black Fox Literary Magazine Award Winner

2022 Hedgebrook Radical Craft Retreat with T Kira Madden

2022 VONA Memoir Workshop with Reyna Grande

2021 Tin House Summer Workshop with E.J. Koh

2021 VONA Prose Residency with Maurice Carlos Ruffin

2019 Atticus Review Flash Creative Nonfiction Contest Finalist

2019 Rhinebeck Residency Finalist

2018 Civvy Award National Finalist

Charles C. Dawe Innovation in Publishing Award

Carnegie Mellon Opportunity Grant

Selected Writing

The room was dimly lit. Wedding guests were seated on the floor, eyes closed, some crying.

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It is probably best not to attend weddings when you are freshly separated from your spouse.

The first time I remember hearing the term anti-vaxxer was in 2014 while hosting dinner for new friends.

My grandmother’s name was Harris.
When she took this name, she was a young nursing student in China just shy of five feet tall.

In Focal Point, Qi allows the grief from her mother’s early passing to seep between each poem, to recede and return.

When young people look for themselves in entertainment, they’re simply seeking a sign of acceptance.

In the Wake of Hate Crimes, Who Will Stand Up for Asian Americans?

We can’t help but hope that despite inevitable differences, Americans can keep talking.

“Don’t ask her about her eyelashes.”
My mother said
on a drive up to Boston.

I once loved a man who made me feel
as big as the earth,
as all-encompassing as the sky:
I was all he could see.

Feeling hopeless about the state of the world? Sit down to dinner with a group of people who don't agree with you.

We don’t go to couples counseling because we’re afraid our relationship isn’t working. We go because we believe in our future.

“Shuji, get off AOL!” screams 7th grader Maya Ishii-Peters, right before the opening credits of Hulu’s hit comedy series “PEN15.”

Mama made this dish with such ease, it almost seemed like she could charm the chicken into preparing itself.

“Sometimes when you have a strong idea, it takes shape on its own. The most work often goes into propping up a weak idea.”