
Less Desolate: A Haiku Comics Collection
Multidisciplinary artists Shin Yu Pai and Justin Rueff have created Less Desolate, a stunning haiku comics book exploring Pacific Northwest and pandemic life. Less Desolate represents an hybrid literary artform that brings together the lyricism and associative qualities of poetry.
About the Artist
Shin Yu Pai is an award-winning writer, photographer, podcast host and editor based in the Pacific Northwest.
Shin Yu Pai was Civic Poet of Seattle (2023-2024) and is the recipient of the 2024 Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America for poetic genius. She the author of 13 books, including most recently No Neutral (Empty Bowl, 2023). She is the recipient of awards from the The Academy of American Poets, City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, 4Culture, and The Awesome Foundation. She is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and was shortlisted in 2014 for a Stranger Genius Award in Literature. From 2015 to 2017, Shin Yu served as Poet Laureate for The City of Redmond. Her writing has appeared in Atlas Obscura, Tricycle Magazine, YES! Magazine, NYTimes, Zocalo Public Square, Seattle Met, ParentMap, Seattle’s Child, International Examiner, and South Seattle Emerald. Her work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, the UK, and Canada.