reading | thursday, FeBRUARY 20 | 7 PM | free
The UNM Creative Writing Program invites you to join them at FUSION | 708 on February 20, at 7 PM for a reading from Sam Tetangco, author of Hope You Blend In: Studies in Color & Light. After the reading, Tetangco will give a brief audience Q&A and sign books. Copies of Hope You Blend In will be available for purchase at the event.
ABOUT HOPE YOU BLEND IN
Don’t let the subtitle fool you, or the section and poem titles alluding to still life, landscape, photography, studies in color, all suggesting that this book somehow is about art, providing the metaphor in the title, of “blending in” in the sense of colors combining to make something new and whole out of initial difference. But this is America, where for all of the melting pot myth we know that colors do not blend easily, and perhaps now even less so gender identity; and in her powerful debut collection Samantha Tetangco writes from the perspective of a “queer person of color” where the hope of her title is hope of survival, “for the promise / of home” despite knowing that like an invasive plant species, “certain visitors are not welcome here.” She surveys a landscape of violence, the reality of “bullets, bullets” everywhere, employing another metaphor, our national symbol of an eagle that “was not real, but they killed it nonetheless” to express her anguish: “I pulled its dead body onto my lap. Tell me: / what should I do with it now? / It is heavy. My arms are tired. / If I put it down, who will pick it up?” The real hope here is found in that question, in caring enough to remain committed to the promise of wholeness. Her closing line is the exhortation “Repeat the words: Don’t forget, don’t forget.” Don’t forget, that is, to live, which in the end is the art that this book truly is about.
Samantha Tetangco (she/her) is a Filipino-American lesbian writer and award-winning educator. Her poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction have appeared in dozens of literary magazines including The Sun, Tri-Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Zone 3, Gertrude, Foglifter, and Cimarron Review and many others. Her first collection of poetry, Hope You Blend In: Studies in Color & Light (forthcoming Broadstone Books 2024) was a finalist for the 2023 National Poetry Series Prize. An avid Dungeons and Dragons player, she is currently at work on a fantasy series that incorporates her love of world building and collaborative storytelling.
Sam is a faculty member in Writing Studies at the University of California Merced where she teaches both professional and creative writing with a focus on sound and audio storytelling, collaborative storytelling, and anti-racist pedagogy. She received her Bachelors of the Arts from the University of California, Berkeley and her Masters of Fine Arts, with Distinction, from the University of New Mexico.
In her dailiness, Sam struggles with what it means to be a queer person of color living in a world where it has become increasingly difficult to exist as a queer person of color. Her writing illustrates the reality of these challenges, her queerness and race permeating each piece, regardless of the genre. She has lived in more houses than she can count and has many places she still calls home, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and California's Central Valley where she currently resides with her wife, fellow writer Randi Beck.
UNM’s English Department offers a full array of creative writing workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction on the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Undergraduate students may register for introductory, intermediate, and advanced workshops in all three genres. Additionally, they are invited to attend readings sponsored by UNM’s Masters of Fine Arts Program and participate as readers on Blue Mesa Review. Qualifying undergraduates interested in pursuing creative writing on the graduate level are encouraged to work with a faculty mentor on a creative writing Honors Thesis. And every fall undergraduate creative writers compete for the prestigious Lena Todd Awards, a small cash stipend and the opportunity to share their work at the Works-in-Process Reading Series.
UNM’s MFA Program in Creative Writing is designed for graduate students committed to pursuing the writing life. This three-year degree combines studio-based workshops in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction with craft seminars and coursework in literature, teaching pedagogy, and professional writing.
Quality bar service provided by Safe House Distilling Co. and Teller Genuine Vodka.
