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Li Young Lee

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Occupation
  
poet

Role
  
Poet

Name
  
Li-Young Lee

Ethnicity
  
Chinese American

Nationality
  
American


Li-Young Lee BOMB Magazine Li Young Lee by James Lee

Born
  
August 19, 1957 (age 66) Jakarta, Indonesia (
1957-08-19
)

Notable works
  
The City in Which I Love You

Notable awards
  
American Book Award Whiting Award Lannan Literary Award

People also search for
  
Earl Ingersoll, Shunryu Suzuki, Maxine Hong Kingston

Education
  
State University of New York at Brockport (1998), University of Pittsburgh, University of Arizona

Awards
  
American Book Awards, Whiting Awards

Books
  
The City in Which I Love You, From blossoms, Book of my nights, The Winged Seed, Behind My Eyes: Poems

Li young lee the 2014 caesar and patricia tabet poetry reading


Li-Young Lee (李立揚, pinyin: Lǐ Lìyáng) (born August 19, 1957) is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal great-grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted to make himself emperor. Lee's father, who was a personal physician to Mao Zedong while in China, relocated his family to Indonesia, where he helped found Gamaliel University. His father was exiled and spent 19 months in an Indonesian prison camp in Macau. In 1959 the Lee family fled the country to escape anti-Chinese sentiment and after a five-year trek through Hong Kong and Japan, they settled in the United States in 1964. Li-Young Lee attended the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Arizona, and the State University of New York at Brockport.

Contents

Li-Young Lee httpswwwpoetsorgsitesdefaultfilesstyles2

Li young lee a conversation of poetry and consciousness


Development as a poet

Li-Young Lee LiYoung Lee The Poetry Foundation

Lee attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he began to develop his love for writing. He had seen his father find his passion for ministry and as a result of his father reading to him and encouraging Lee to find his passion, Lee began to dive into the art of language. Lee’s writing has also been influenced by classic Chinese poets, such as Li Bai and Du Fu. Many of Lee’s poems are filled with themes of simplicity, strength, and silence. All are strongly influenced by his family history, childhood, and individuality. He writes with simplicity and passion which creates images that take the reader deeper and also requires his audience to fill in the gaps with their own imagination. These feelings of exile and boldness to rebel take shape as they provide common themes for poems.

Lee’s influence on Asian American poetry

Li-Young Lee LiYoung Lee Poetry Society of America

Li-Young Lee has been an established Asian American poet who has been doing interviews for the past twenty years. Breaking the Alabaster Jar: Conversations with Li-Young Lee (BOA Editions, 2006, ed. Earl G. Ingersoll), is the first edited and published collection of interviews with an Asian American poet. In this book, Earl G. Ingersoll has collected interviews with the poet consisting of "conversational" questions meant to bring out Lee’s views on Asian American poetry, writing, and identity.

Awards and honors

Li-Young Lee LiYoung Lee reads To Hold Poems Out Loud

Lee has won numerous poetry awards:

  • 1986: Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award, from New York University, for Rose
  • 1988: Whiting Award
  • 1990: Lamont Poetry Selection for The City in Which I Love You
  • 1995: Lannan Literary Award
  • 1995: American Book Award, from the Before Columbus Foundation, for The Wingéd Seed: A Remembrance
  • 2002: William Carlos Williams Award for Book of My Nights (American Poets Continuum) Judge: Carolyn Kizer
  • 2003: Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, which does not accept applications and which includes a $25,000 stipend
  • Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
  • Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  • Grant, Illinois Arts Council
  • Grant, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
  • Grant, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
  • Other recognition

  • 2011: Lee's poem ″A Story″ was featured in the AP English Literature and Composition 2011 Free-Response Questions.
  • Critical studies

    as of March 2008:

    References

    Li-Young Lee Wikipedia