Travis Chi Wing Lau (劉志頴)
@travisclau.bsky.social
(he/him/his) Assistant Professor, Poet: c18/c19 British Literature/History of Medicine (immunity and vaccination)/Health Humanities/Disability Studies
travisclau.com
travisclau.com
Beginning to teach my death, dying, and palliative care unit in class while grieving might be the cruelest irony
November 18, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Beginning to teach my death, dying, and palliative care unit in class while grieving might be the cruelest irony
One of those weeks in a series of months that have been testing every limit. But I'm here. Somehow.
November 8, 2025 at 4:55 AM
One of those weeks in a series of months that have been testing every limit. But I'm here. Somehow.
Heart so full this evening after a second book celebration with my dear colleague, Michael Leong, but this time with our Kenyon College community. To my colleagues and students who came, thank you, thank you, thank you.
October 24, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Heart so full this evening after a second book celebration with my dear colleague, Michael Leong, but this time with our Kenyon College community. To my colleagues and students who came, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Tender and achy today on every level, but I'm here somehow.
October 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Tender and achy today on every level, but I'm here somehow.
Truly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and even Mercury could tell something was wrong.
October 21, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Truly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and even Mercury could tell something was wrong.
Excited next week on 10/23 at 5 PM to read again alongside my colleague, Michael Leong, to celebrate our books having come out just recently back to back. I'm so fortunate to have such brilliant scholar-creatives as colleagues. This event is open to the public and we'll be reading/signing books!
October 15, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Excited next week on 10/23 at 5 PM to read again alongside my colleague, Michael Leong, to celebrate our books having come out just recently back to back. I'm so fortunate to have such brilliant scholar-creatives as colleagues. This event is open to the public and we'll be reading/signing books!
Been just over two months of this book in the world. I'm grateful to so many of you who have welcomed it with such love and generosity.
Still have signed copies if any folks would like one!
Still have signed copies if any folks would like one!
October 8, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Been just over two months of this book in the world. I'm grateful to so many of you who have welcomed it with such love and generosity.
Still have signed copies if any folks would like one!
Still have signed copies if any folks would like one!
My love to Ben Townley Canning for featuring this love poem in the @fourteenpoems.bsky.social newsletter: I tried capture the vulnerable first time I trusted my partner to touch my curving back.
September 19, 2025 at 5:50 PM
My love to Ben Townley Canning for featuring this love poem in the @fourteenpoems.bsky.social newsletter: I tried capture the vulnerable first time I trusted my partner to touch my curving back.
Just a little photosynthesis. Not too much.
September 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Just a little photosynthesis. Not too much.
Finally fulfilled my childhood fantasy of having a room full of floor to ceiling bookshelves. It's been a rough road to finishing this project, but I'm so glad to finally have room for my book hoarding.
September 4, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Finally fulfilled my childhood fantasy of having a room full of floor to ceiling bookshelves. It's been a rough road to finishing this project, but I'm so glad to finally have room for my book hoarding.
Day 1 of tenure review year. Pressure cooker already feels like it's on high.
August 28, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Day 1 of tenure review year. Pressure cooker already feels like it's on high.
About the seal I've used on my signed copies: in many Eastern cultures, seals with your full name are used in place of signatures for important documents. Artists have also used them as signatures. My mother had one made for me and insisted that I use it, and who am I to tell her no?
August 25, 2025 at 1:27 PM
About the seal I've used on my signed copies: in many Eastern cultures, seals with your full name are used in place of signatures for important documents. Artists have also used them as signatures. My mother had one made for me and insisted that I use it, and who am I to tell her no?
Your resident jolly rancher here to welcome a new Kenyon class.
August 24, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Your resident jolly rancher here to welcome a new Kenyon class.
I am beyond grateful for this remarkable gathering for the launch of What's Left Is Tender. I don't have the words to thank you all properly. Prolongue Bookshop, you will always be my literary home.
August 19, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I am beyond grateful for this remarkable gathering for the launch of What's Left Is Tender. I don't have the words to thank you all properly. Prolongue Bookshop, you will always be my literary home.
First set of signed copies to be sent out! So grateful to all of you who requested one. 💗
August 8, 2025 at 5:07 PM
First set of signed copies to be sent out! So grateful to all of you who requested one. 💗
Author copies finally arrived 🥹🥹
August 6, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Author copies finally arrived 🥹🥹
Feeling incredibly fortunate to receive support from the Ohio Arts Council to work on my next project, "Curve, Slouch, Ache,” which explores the history
of scoliosis through archival research and poetic form.
of scoliosis through archival research and poetic form.
August 4, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Feeling incredibly fortunate to receive support from the Ohio Arts Council to work on my next project, "Curve, Slouch, Ache,” which explores the history
of scoliosis through archival research and poetic form.
of scoliosis through archival research and poetic form.
Columbus folks: it would mean the world to me to see you at the launch reading of What's Left Is Tender on 8/18 at 7 PM at Prologue Bookshop.
July 30, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Columbus folks: it would mean the world to me to see you at the launch reading of What's Left Is Tender on 8/18 at 7 PM at Prologue Bookshop.
As we approach launch day on the 31st, I'm proud to share my last blurb by C. Dale Young, whose work has been a mainstay of my courses in health humanities for years.
July 28, 2025 at 3:49 PM
As we approach launch day on the 31st, I'm proud to share my last blurb by C. Dale Young, whose work has been a mainstay of my courses in health humanities for years.
I remember teaching @dapowell.bsky.social's work for the first time in my unit on HIV/AIDS literatures and witnessing students respond so movingly to its voice and most of all its tenderness. I can never thank you enough, Doug, for believing in my work and to be following in your footsteps.
July 20, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I remember teaching @dapowell.bsky.social's work for the first time in my unit on HIV/AIDS literatures and witnessing students respond so movingly to its voice and most of all its tenderness. I can never thank you enough, Doug, for believing in my work and to be following in your footsteps.
As a scholar, I've been really indebted to the work of d/Deaf poetics, especially for its challenges to how we imagine form, audience, and sound. I'm grateful to @ilyakaminsky.bsky.social for his embrace of my work as disability poetics that, above all, responds to power and medicine.
July 16, 2025 at 5:23 PM
As a scholar, I've been really indebted to the work of d/Deaf poetics, especially for its challenges to how we imagine form, audience, and sound. I'm grateful to @ilyakaminsky.bsky.social for his embrace of my work as disability poetics that, above all, responds to power and medicine.
Writing and publishing as a disabled poet has demanded a lot of reckoning: with my bodymind, with my creative practice, with who I call kin and community. Steve Kuusisto has exemplified the kind of crip scholar-poet-activist I want to be.
July 11, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Writing and publishing as a disabled poet has demanded a lot of reckoning: with my bodymind, with my creative practice, with who I call kin and community. Steve Kuusisto has exemplified the kind of crip scholar-poet-activist I want to be.
As I was writing toward the collection that would become What's Left Is Tender, I had the joy of participating in Richie Hofmann's poetry workshops, which led to a few poems that appear in the book.
July 6, 2025 at 8:38 PM
As I was writing toward the collection that would become What's Left Is Tender, I had the joy of participating in Richie Hofmann's poetry workshops, which led to a few poems that appear in the book.