Bunkong Tuon
@bunkong.bsky.social
200 followers 190 following 54 posts
Khmer-American. Pushcart-winning poet and writer. Debut novel Koan Khmer out now. Father. Husband. Teacher. Former refugee. Cosmic surveyor. https://www.bunkongtuon.com
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bunkong.bsky.social
Kenyon Review, Paris Review, Rattle, Threepenny Review, the New Yorker.

I hope this is useful. Good luck, everyone, with your long poems.
bunkong.bsky.social
Here's a list of journals that folks recommended: Long Poem Magazine (UK), The Broken Spine (UK), Last Syllable, Missouri Review, Literary Imagination, Blackbird, Ploughshares (for Fall reading period), Adroit, Cincinnati Review, Lothorian Poetry Journal (1/2)
bunkong.bsky.social
Thanks so much, Vikki!
bunkong.bsky.social
Dear Poets:

Please recommend places that accept long poems. I have a ten-page poem. I'm curious what's out there for long poems and I am also hoping that this will be helpful for other poets in a similar situation.

Thanks, in advance, and Happy Sunday!
bunkong.bsky.social
Took my daughter skating. Teaching her about foot placement, pushing, carving. I got on a board too and I felt like a kid again. That’s me, a kid from the 80s.
bunkong.bsky.social
An interview I did for my college, where I talked about learning to play fiddle tunes on guitar, skateboarding with my daughter, and fond memories of my beloved mentor, Harry Marten. Please give it a read when you have a minute. Happy Sunday, all!

www.union.edu/news/stories...
Catching up with...Bunkong Tuon
www.union.edu
bunkong.bsky.social
I’m honored to be awarded Union College’s Stillman Prize for Faculty Excellence in Research. “Tuon writes poems, stories and personal essays that establish space for Cambodian American literature . . . ."

Happy Sunday, folks!

www.union.edu/news/stories...
bunkong.bsky.social
Sometimes I catch myself parenting in the shadow of the Khmer Rouge.

Thanks to @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social and its editors for publishing this poem.

Happy Sunday, All!
bunkong.bsky.social
Can't believe Koan Khmer is one year old today! This book is a summation of my thoughts, feelings & observations of an immigrant life in the States.

If you haven’t done so, please consider getting a copy. I will be grateful for your support!

Happy Friday!

nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014743...
Koan Khmer - Northwestern University Press
A powerful debut novel about war, immigration, and home Celebrating the power of literature to rescue a life from despair, Koan Khmer is the story of Samnang...
nupress.northwestern.edu
bunkong.bsky.social
I always tell students to write from the heart about things that matter. Life is short, I tell them. Be true to your authentic self.

(an excerpt of an interview on craft I did with Professor Khem Aryal)
Reposted by Bunkong Tuon
bunkong.bsky.social
Last day at the beach. Dad and his daughter exercising.

Happy Sunday, Everyone!
bunkong.bsky.social
Thanks so much @pandora-books.bsky.social for your support of this Koan Khmer! Wonderful to see Khmer and Khmer American writings featured on your page.

Gratitude!
pandora-books.bsky.social
"It is safer to write out these words than to utter them. That is why I am a writer."

From the novel "Koan Khmer," by @bunkong.bsky.social. Curbstone Books, Northwestern University Press, 2024

#bunkongtuon #khmer #cambodian #novels #writers #writing #curbstonebooks #northwesternuniversitypress
Photo of a passage from Bunkong Tuon's novel "Koan Khmer," published by Curbstone Books, Northwestern University Press, 2024. The Khmer book beneath the novel is "Journey to Freedom" by Ranachith Yimsut, published by the Documentation Center of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, 2006.
bunkong.bsky.social
Waiting to see how she’d end the poem. I was not disappointed. Thanks for sharing, Grant!
bunkong.bsky.social
The other day, talking to a student about the state of our world, I was reminded of what I need to do as a parent, the challenges of raising my kids in these turbulent times: to not let the darkness of the world infect their childhood, to keep the light in.

Hugs to all this Sunday morning.
bunkong.bsky.social
Hugs to you, Melissa and family.
bunkong.bsky.social
Unprompted, my son wrote “LOVE” in the sand. A message that is so much needed in this mutilated world. Love to all.
Reposted by Bunkong Tuon
susanlleary.bsky.social
Happy 1st book birthday to DRESSING THE BEAR! It’s been such a wonderful year & to everyone who has read, uplifted, or engaged with these poems in any way, you have made me so happy & I am so very grateful! All the love to @triohousepress.org too! What a talented, tireless, and big-hearted team! 💙
bunkong.bsky.social
When the U.S. dropped bombs on Iran, I had all these thoughts running through my head. The poem captures some of those thoughts. Thanks to editors @Rattle Poetry for choosing this poem for this week’s Poets Respond.

Thank you for reading.

www.rattle.com/what-the-war...
What the War Has Taught Us by Bunkong Tuon - Rattle: Poetry
God dies when a bomb is dropped. God dies when a child is killed. God dies when families are torn asunder and neighbors become strangers.
www.rattle.com
bunkong.bsky.social
My poetry and novel are part of the Proleung Khmer exhibit at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

Deep gratitude to the Khmer folks in Lowell for their generous support. I went to read in March of this year a stranger, and they welcomed me with open arms. Thank you for accepting this koan Khmer.
bunkong.bsky.social
Happy to have a poem in the Michigan Quarterly Review. There are things that still won’t let me go. Thanks to editor Marcelo Hernandez Castillo for this incredible genre-bending, border-crossing, multimedia issue on memory and migrations. I will spend some time with it.
bunkong.bsky.social
This book is for us Khmer Americans who have chosen paths different from what our immigrant parents dream for us: doctors, lawyers, & engineers. Instead, we have chosen what our souls need: music, art, poetry, film. This book is for us. The weirdos. The outsiders. The misfits. (2/2)
bunkong.bsky.social
Stoked to have my debut novel reviewed in World Literature Today. Thanks for Charles Rammelkamp for this wonderful review and @worldlittoday.bsky.social for their continued support. (1/2)

worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/may/koa...
Koan Khmer by Bunkong Tuon
Curbstone Books. 2024. 256 pages.
worldliteraturetoday.org