Justin Chin

Justin Chin's Biography Born in Malaysia, raised & educated in Singapore, shipped to the U.S. by way of Hawaii, and now living in San Francisco. Author of 3 books of poetry, all published by Manic D Press: Bite Hard (1997); Harmless Medicine (2001), a finalist in the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Awards; and, Gutted (2006), which received the 2007 Thom Gunn Award for Poetry by the Publishing Triangle. Squeezed in between these were 2 non-fictions: Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes & Pranks (St. Martins, 1999), and the ur-memoir, Burden of Ashes (Alyson Publications, 2002).

 

In the nineties, also led a double life as performance artist: created and presented seven full-length solo works here, there and where ever. Packed up those cookies in 2002, (with occasional relapses) and the documents, scripts, and what-heck from that period was published in Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005). Continues to produce text/visual Book-based performance work. Book 2 is an on-going project where discarded or abandoned books found on the streets & other public places are remade, remodeled, & reworked into artists books.

 

This is not the Justin Chin who designs those Jedi Knight/Star Wars games, sorry, that's another guy with the same name, higher income bracket, more useful skill sets and different colour parachute pants. This Justin Chin, sadly enough, doesn't even quite know for sure what the storyline of Star Wars really is, even though he was made to watch it by guardians who thought it may have been an educational film. (They thought "The Deep" was too. About marine life.)

 

Family

  • loud, insane, uncouth, tactless, tacky, aggravating, forgiving, supportive, sacrificing, martyring, disapproving, mocking, reassuring, fond, argumentative, protective, crowingly proud, critical, stoic, relentless, dependable, loyal, irrational, understanding, all mine.

Causes I Support

Publishers

  • Manic D Press
    Suspect Thoughts Press
    Alyson Publications

Web Links