Join us for a book launch celebrating National Youth Poet Laureate Evan Wang's new chapbook, "Slow Burn."
Celebrate National Poetry Month with an evening of poetry at the book launch for Evan Wang's new chapbook, Slow Burn. At this event, you'll hear readings by Evan Wang (National Youth Poet Laureate), Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah (Boston Poet Laureate), Ailin Sha (Boston Youth Poet Laureate), Alyssa Gaines (former National Youth Poet Laureate) and Neha Kumar (Washington, D.C. Youth Poet Laureate).
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About Slow Burn
Persistent yet flickering, Slow Burn unveils a passionate world where love is both impossible and inevitable. Divided into three sections, Evan Wang’s debut chapbook traces the confrontation of the self through a cyclical journey of discovery and contradiction, ultimately leading to the choice of allowance: that which is made by the reader. Slow Burn is a romantic’s answer to the search for love, and the strangely comforting realization that the effects of the world mark us all.
About Evan Wang
Evan Wang (王潇) is the 9th National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States, the first male and Chinese individual to hold this title, and author of Slow Burn (Northwestern University Press, 2026), the youngest winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. His work appears in POETRY Magazine, The Kenyon Review, Waxwing, The Harvard Advocate, and elsewhere. Deemed a "prodigy" by Teen Vogue, Evan has been featured at and recognized by the Biden White House, the United Nations, the Smithsonian Institution, and Google DeepMind. Evan is a first-year student at Harvard College.
About Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah
Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah (they/he) is a Ghanaian American poet, editor, and educator living out the diaspora in Boston, Massachusetts. For six years they taught 11th grade English at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and prior to that served as a teaching artist at organizations throughout Boston. They have very recently (September 2023) transitioned from teaching high school English, and are currently working as a school librarian at the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester, Boston (it's a K-8!). While they miss their high schoolers, Emmanuel says the transition to working with littles, particularly kids growing up in the city they themself grew up in, has been incredibly joyful and life-giving. The pursuit of joy, and that which sustains life, is essential to their creative practice, and to their practice of living. Emmanuel's first chapbook, "not without small joys" (published in 2021 by Game Over Books Press) explores the centrality of joy as an animating force, especially in the face of human suffering. In their free time, they enjoy hot carbs, afternoons spent playing board games, and the long sigh at the end of a good book.
About Ailin Sha
Ailin Sha is a poet and writer based in Boston. Originally from Beijing, China, she moved to Boston with her mother and sister at age eleven. She attended Boston Latin School and is currently a first-year at Harvard College, where she plans to study English and Economics with a minor in Film. She is a member of the Harvard Advocate, the oldest continuously published college literary magazine in the United States, where she serves on the Poetry Board. She also plays the violin in the Bach Society Orchestra, the largest student-run orchestra at the college. In her free time, she loves to watch and discuss films, write, try new foods, and learn languages.
About Alyssa Gaines
Alyssa Gaines is the 6th National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. A poet and researcher originally from Indianapolis’s east side, she is a current senior at Harvard College where she studies Social Studies and the History of Art & Architecture with a secondary in English. In 2024 she was an Emerging Art Writing Fellow at the Boston Art Review, and in 2025 she received Harvard’s Eager Memorial Prize commemorating the “best creative writing in the juvenile field.” Her writing has appeared in The Harvard Advocate, the Wall Street Journal, HouseHouse Magazine, The Journal, and elsewhere, and she has been recognized by the U.S. Congress for her outstanding community service. Dr. Gloria J. Ladson-Billings called her work “timely and integrative.” In the words of Bob Holman, “from the center of the country comes the centered, fierce poetry of Alyssa Gaines."
About Neha Kumar
Neha Kumar is a Washington DC native, and current freshman at Boston College who exclusively sleeps with a notebook under her pillow. She loves writing poetry, creative nonfiction essays, fictional short stories, and wants to experiment with every kind of writing. As DC’s Youth Poet Laureate, her writing draws on everything the sun touches, but focuses on the South Asian-American experience, the complexities of girlhood, and the current political climate. Neha’s work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the JWM Poetry Contest, and has been published in Half-in-Earnest, the Laughing Medusa, and Stylus. When she’s not writing, Neha can be found either playing her violin, or attempting to chart the stars over a cup of homemade chai.
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