2026 Lannan Literary Festival: An Evening with Travis Chi Wing Lau

On March 26, 2026, Poet Travis Chi Wing Lau, author of What’s Left Is Tender, joined radio host Georgina Godwin for an intimate conversation about his powerful exploration of disability, chronic pain, and family silence.Dr. Travis Chi Wing Lau (he/him/his)is Assistant Professor of English at Kenyon College. He received his B.A. in English with a minor in Classical Civilization from the University of California, Los Angeles (2012). He received both his M.A. (2013) and Ph.D. (2018) in English at the University of Pennsylvania. His work is primarily focused on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature and culture with research and teaching interests in health humanities, disability studies, and the history of medicine.Travis has contributed to numerous publications dedicated to accessible public scholarship like Synapsis, Public Books, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Lapham’s Quarterly. He also regularly reviews collections of poetry for literary and arts journals like Up the Staircase Quarterly and Tupelo Quarterly.Travis has over a decade of teaching experience. He previously taught at BrainChild Education, a K-12 tutoring center in Oakland, CA. From 2010-2012, he also worked as a peer learning facilitator at UCLA’s Academics in the Commons/Athletics Peer Learning Labs, where he regularly held tutorials on composition and literature. He also served as an Adjunct Instructor in English for the Community College of Philadelphia and graduate student instructor for University of Pennsylvania’s Department of English and The College of Liberal and Professional Studies Program. He was formerly Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in English at The University of Texas at Austin.Beyond teaching, Travis has worked as a Student Educator for the Armand Hammer Museum, where he developed and gave public tours of art exhibitions. In 2010, Travis worked internationally as an intern and guest English instructor at Ryugaku Journal, a Japanese publication catering to Japanese students interested in studying abroad in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.Alongside his academic and public writing, he is also a poet who writes often about embodiment at the intersections of queerness and disability. His poetry has been widely published and nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net anthologies. He is also the recipient of the Greater Columbus Art Council’s Artists Elevated Award in literature.Quantum Jazz — "Orbiting A Distant Planet" — Provided by Jamendo.