Poet and community activist Ching-In Chen is scheduled to make an appearance at Woodland Pattern Book Center Dec. 17 as part of the center’s “Redletter” reading series. Ching-In is the author of The Heart’s Traffic, an engrossing book-length sequence of poetry crafted with a passionate voice and riveting intensity. An alluring portrait of a young immigrant tormented by the death of her best friend, this novel-in-poems offers a cross-cultural blend of Eastern and Western imagery that is both celebrative and contemplative in its recount of one woman’s journey toward self-discovery. The 30 poems in The Heart’s Traffic intertwine culture, sexuality and family, crafting an artistic chronicle filled with powerful yet tender emotions and contemporary but classic lessons. Ching-In’s innovative poetic style will compel readers to unmask the character’s personal transformation as it is slowly revealed through each poem.

Ching-In Chen is a multi-genre, border-crossing writer and current student in the MFA creative writing program at the University of California-Riverside. Poems from The Heart’s Traffic, Ching-In’s debut collection of poetry, have earned an Oscar Wilde honorable mention as well as a nomination for a John Cauble Short Play Award. Ching-In is also co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities, due in March 2011. Ching-In will present her work 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, as the featured reader at Woodland Pattern’s open-mic night. The cost of the program is $3 ($2 for open-mic performers).