Creative Writing

Creative Writing and literature and language  professor Dan Langton has passed away at the age of 97.  Dan taught at SFSU  since 1968 and retired 50 years later in 2018. He was known for his closeness to students and his use of the typewriter to respond by letter to students' writing, the same typewriter he used to compose thousands of poems and author many books. Serving in the military in World War 2, he committed himself to pacifism. His poems are often highly personal,  and some idisplay his pacifist views. Known as a member of the original Beat poets , he was a prominent San Francisco presence  and a kind and welcoming greeter of our new students. The  meeting for new grad students always had a moment in which he explained how they were chosen for being the best applicants. 

Plans are being made for a memorial in the new year. We will keep you informed. He is survived by his son and daughter-in-law and was preceded in death by his beloved wife Evie.  

Immigrants-eat-pets trope is a century-old stereotype and "very old racism." 

When May-lee Chai was in high school in the early 1980s, a Chinese restaurant finally opened in the small South Dakota town where her family lived.

"The food was delicious!" remembered Chai, now a creative writing professor at San Francisco State University.

But when her parents invited friends to lunch there, they always politely declined. Rumor was they'd be served stray cats and dogs.

Though the rumor was totally false, the owners, who had fled from the Communist Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, eventually had to sell their business and move away, Chai told USA TODAY.

The talk brought up ugly memories for Chai and many others. "I have heard the immigrants-come-to-town-and-eat-pets racist trope ever since I was a child. This is very old racism," Chai posted to the social media site X, formerly Twitter, receiving more than 225,000 views and 18,000 likes.

Read the full interview with May-lee Chai on USA Today!