Sun Yung Shin is awarded Minnesota's Kay Sexton Award

Sun Yung Shin has been named the 2026 Kay Sexton Award winner, a top honor in the Minnesota Book Awards program; she will be honored at the Minnesota Book Awards ceremony on May 6 in St. Paul.

Sun Yung Shin has been named the 2026 Kay Sexton Award winner, one of the highest honors in Minnesota's literary community. The award is part of the Minnesota Book Awards and recognizes longstanding dedication to fostering books, reading and literary activity in the state. Shin lives in Minneapolis and was born in Seoul, South Korea. She is the author of five poetry collections, books for children, and has an upcoming memoir titled "Heart Eater: A Memoir of Immigration, Language, and Belonging." Key details: - The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, in association with Education Minnesota, announced the Kay Sexton Award as part of the Minnesota Book Awards program. - Shin is a poet, writer, editor and cultural worker who edited anthologies including "A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota" and "What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigration Stories on Food and Family," and co-edited "Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption." - She has taught at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, the Loft Literary Center, Hamline University, Carleton College and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, and is a McKnight Foundation Fellow in creative nonfiction. - Shin has received artist grants from the Bush Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board, among others, and co-directs the community micro-organization Poetry Asylum with poet Su Hwang. - She will be honored at the 38th annual Minnesota Book Awards ceremony on May 6 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, where Book Award winners in nine categories will also be announced. Summary: The award recognizes Shin's longstanding contributions to Minnesota's literary life and her work organizing and amplifying literary projects. The immediate next public occasion is the Minnesota Book Awards ceremony on May 6, where she will be formally honored and the category winners will be announced.