About Me (she/they)
My name is Joon + Ae
(sounds like June + the letter A)
Some of my favorite things
my chosen family, dancing, eating, healing, tigers, dragons, reading, writing, my ancestors, frank conversations, laughing my ass off with my kids, all the dogs in the world, muu-muus and sweatpants, mutual aid, having my mind changed by thoughtful arguments; smelling food I can’t eat (food allergies!), justice, dancing, windows, nailing a recipe (I’m not a great cook!), building new things with good people, imagining new futures, comedy, good haircuts, my Instagram community, learning about Korea, learning in general, my home, good design, labor unions, my fancy vacuum, Korean shaman, engaged Buddhism
Things I find difficult
grief, learning boundaries, overcommitting, leaving the house, guilt, not moving my body enough, fear of loss, sleeping, public speaking, being gluten free, Hangul, walking my dogs, resting, catastrophizing, transforming anger into wisdom, a regular meditation practice, when the people I love suffer, overeating, white supremacy and patriarchy as the common enemies to all people, going in the water, when my kids leave their shit around the house, survivor’s guilt and an embarrassment of riches, connecting to my body, eating enough fruit and vegetables, PMS, perimenopause, being too short to reach things at the grocery store, and fuck the multibillion dollar adoption industrial complex
My dreams for the future
universal, holistic healthcare for the wellness of body and mind and spirit; fun, just, and engaging educational systems that cultivate joy, personal, and collective growth; accessibility; universal basic income and a moral economy; racial justice; reproductive justice and the abolition of the family policing system; adoptee justice; LGBTQIA2S+ rights and joy; healing-focused justice systems that center restorative and transformational justice; no borders; the humane treatment of animals; a commitment to reverse the climate crisis and live in harmony with the natural world; an end to imperialism and the dismantling of systems of war; a world filled with art and beauty; safety and liberation for all people;
A FREE PALESTINE
My writing
Chapters from my novel project have been published in Hyphen Magazine, The Work & Response, The Plentitudes, Mochi Magazine, and the Bellevue Literary Review. My other fiction has been in The Portland Review, Colorado Review, Kartika, WomenArts Quarterly Journal, Where Are You From: An Anthology of Asian American Literature, and more. I have an BA in English, an MA in Conflict Resolution with a focus on liberatory writing, and an MFA in Creative Writing. I am the 2007 winner of the AWP Intro Journals Award, a 2x Tin House workshop alum, an Anaphora Arts alum, and a 2024 Oregon Humanities fellow.
Selected Work
Community
As an international and transracial adoptee and as someone estranged from adoptive family, community means everything to me. I am a co-founder of CONSTELLATION: A READING SERIES AT TIN HOUSE & BISHOP & WILDE. I am an co-founder + organizer for VOICES, A BIPOC ADOPTEE COMMUNITY and a co-founder + organizer for YEONDAE, a social justice collective of Asian adoptees. I sit on the board of INCOME MOVEMENT, an economic justice organization that advocates for basic income. Previously, I spent 10+ years as writing faculty in higher education, focusing on historically disadvantaged students and specializing in transformative pedagogies and assessment, curriculum design, and program reform. I love collaborative creation, facilitating workshops, doing project-based mutual aid, and relishing the company of good people.
Or send me an email.
Land Acknowledgement
I live, work, and play on the unceded ancestral lands of the Multnomah, Wasco, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Cowlitz, Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and other tribes whose homes ran along the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. As a Korean adoptee, I have suffered from family separation. As a forced immigrant, I have been ethnically displaced from my homeland due to injustices stemming from imperialism and colonialism. Many in my adoptee community are Native peoples, who experience an acute kind of loss from the history of violent settler colonialism that has resulted in familial and cultural loss, the degradation of the Earth, and the continued oppression of Native peoples. I offer my deep respect and solidarity to these communities.
© 2024 Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka. All rights reserved.