Welcome, friends and readers of Kyla-Yen!

Thirty days of poems, supporting Tupelo Press!

Hi friend! Thanks for being here. I'm Kyla-Yen (they/them), and I'm one of the poets writing for Tupelo Press's April 2025 30/30 Project.

A bit about me as a writer:

I am 23-year-old queer and trans Vietnamese American diaspora writer whose work revolves around themes of dreaming, fantasizing, and futurizing, and focuses on topics of diaspora, transness, ecology, colonialism, capitalism, and intergenerational histories. Originally from the Bay Area, CA, I now live in Cambridge, MA. I am a 2024-2025 Writer in Residence for Collections of Transience’s fiction program, a Fiction Reader for Okay Donkey, and a scholarship recipient for Abode Press’s upcoming 2025 Virtual Summer Retreat speculative fiction cohort, and was previously a Spring 2025 writing resident at the Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA). My work has appeared in The Offing, GASHER Journal, For Page & Screen Magazine, Beyond Queer Words, and more. You can visit my author page at www.kylayenhuynhgiffin.com, and find me on Instagram @yenshrine.

~~ Every day this April, I will be writing a brand new poem for you to read here! Why? Each month for the past decade plus, Tupelo Press has invited volunteer poets to take part in the 30/30 Project and challenge themselves to write a new poem daily while also fundraising to support Tupelo Press's operations. Tupelo Press has published, supported, and promoted diverse and marginalized authors for the past 25 years, and has also been taking a recent stand against the National Endowment for the Arts' recent anti-DEI grant guidelines. Independent literary presses like Tupelo Press are invaluable to the publishing world and literary community, and without them, literature and the humanities wouldn't be the same. They support the works, crafts, and livelihoods of writers like us, who in turn are able to share our writing with our communities, inspiring change, influencing culture, and adding more beauty and art to the world. ~~

But none of this would be possible without YOU--the sponsors! Your donations will not only allow Tupelo Press to continue publishing new works, holding writing contests and offering awards to writers, and hosting writing residencies--they will also fund a writing residency for me at Tupelo Press's Gentle House in Port Angeles, Washington!

***If we raise $750 through my fundraiser, I will be invited to participate in a five-night writing residency, where I will have the amazing opportunity to focus solely on my writing in a beautiful location, build community with fellow dedicated writers, and grow my writing portfolio and career!***

Your readership is immensely appreciated, and your donations will make all the difference! Please give my poems, and the poems of the other poets in the 30/30 Project, a read, and follow along with my writing and fundraising journey all month long. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, my friends, for supporting my writing and Tupelo Press!

P.S. Donors will receive emails with behind-the-scenes glimpses at my poems' first drafts, as well as decorated handmade cards that feature your favorite poem of mine from this challenge! (If you would like to opt in to these donor gifts, you can write the title of your favorite poem of mine in your donation note, and be sure to mark "Share my information with the individual fundraiser" so I know who donated and where to email you and mail your card.)