Franny Choi

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| caption = Franny Choi performing at a poetry slam

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1989|02|11}}

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|alma_mater=University of Michigan

| occupation = Poet

| nationality = American

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| genre = Slam poetry

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Franny Choi (born February 11, 1989){{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} is an American writer, poet and playwright.{{Cite web|url=http://frannychoi.com/|title=Franny Choi|language=en-US|access-date=2018-12-09}}

Life

Choi uses she and they pronouns. She lived in Northampton, Massachusetts, and now resides in Greenfield, Massachusetts.{{Cite web|title=About|url=https://www.frannychoi.com/about-1|access-date=2020-07-30|website=FRANNY CHOI|language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2024-01-19 |title=Northampton’s new poet laureate lives in Greenfield: Franny Choi is 10th person to hold title |url=https://www.recorder.com/Northampton-selects-Franny-Choi-as-its-new-poet-laureate-53730626 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Greenfield Recorder |language=en}} Choi's parents are Choi Inyeong and Nam Songeun.{{cite web |last=Choi |first=Franny |date=2022-08-21 |title=Choi Jeong Min |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/58784/choi-jeong-min |website=The Poetry Foundation}} She is Korean-American. In high school, Choi was introduced to the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and became interested in poetry's spoken form. In college, she joined a group for marginalized spoken poets, called WORD!, which was her introduction to slam poetry.{{Cite web |last=Cordero |first=Karla |date=2014-11-03 |title=Interview with Franny Choi |url=http://www.spitjournal.com/interviews/interview-franny-choi/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326162128/http://www.spitjournal.com/interviews/interview-franny-choi/ |archive-date=2023-03-26 |access-date=2018-12-11 |website=Spit Journal |language=en-US}}

Education and career

Choi graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in Literary Arts and Ethnic Studies in 2011 and received a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan.{{Cite web |title=Franny Choi |url=https://english.williams.edu/profile/fc3/ |access-date=2020-07-30 |website=english.williams.edu}} After graduating, she became a co-director of the Providence Poetry Slam. She founded the Dark Noise Collective with Fatimah Asghar, Danez Smith, Jamila Woods, Nate Marshall, and Aaron Samuels in 2012.

Choi worked for Hyphen, a non-profit Asian-American culture magazine, as a senior editor. She was co-host, with Danez Smith, of the podcast VS. She was a Gaius Charles Bolin Fellow in English at Williams College; in 2022 she joined the undergraduate Literature Faculty at Bennington College.{{cite web |date=21 August 2022 |title=Franny Choi |url=https://www.bennington.edu/academics/faculty/franny-choi |website=Bennington College}}{{Cite web |title=Franny Choi |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/franny-choi |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=The Poetry Foundation}}

=Awards=

Choi is a two-time winner of the Rustbelt Poetry Slam.{{Cite web |last=Hale |first=Whitney |date=2019-09-19 |title=Franny Choi to Headline Wild Women of Poetry Slam |url=https://uknow.uky.edu/uk-happenings/franny-choi-headline-wild-women-poetry-slam |access-date=2020-07-30 |website=UKNow}} In 2020, Soft Science won the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association's Elgin Award.{{Cite web |title=Science Fiction Poetry Association |url=https://www.sfpoetry.com/el/20elgin.html |access-date=2024-12-10 |website=www.sfpoetry.com}}

Activism

Choi promotes social activism through her poetry and writing.{{cite news |last1=Segal |first1=Corinne |date=30 November 2015 |title=Poet Franny Choi pictures a world without police |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/poet-franny-choi-pictures-a-world-without-police |accessdate=17 December 2018 |work=PBS News |publisher=NewsHour Productions |agency=}} In her poem "Whiteness Walks Into A Bar", she highlights institutionalized racism in the United States.{{Cite web |last= |date=2017-04-04 |title=Franny Choi - "Whiteness Walks into a Bar" |url=https://buttonpoetry.com/franny-choi-whiteness-walks-bar/ |access-date=2018-12-11 |website=Button Poetry |language=en-US}} Other poems, like "furiosa", focus on feminism.{{Cite web |last=Choi |first=Franny |date=2016 |title=ISSUE 12 FEATURE: FRANNY CHOI |url=http://www.batcityreview.org/franny-choi/ |access-date=2018-12-11 |website=Bat City Review |language=en-US}} Choi curated a series of video poems by 12 queer Asian American and Pacific Islander poets for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Queer Check-Ins |url=https://apa.si.edu/queer-check-ins/ |access-date=2020-07-30 |website=Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center |language=en-US}}