Li-Young Lee



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 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.

Development as a poet
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 many of his poems.

Lee’s influence on Asian American poetry
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
Lee has won numerous poetry awards:
 * 2003: Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, which does not accept applications and which includes a $25,000 stipend
 * 2002: William Carlos Williams Award for Book of My Nights (American Poets Continuum) Judge: Carolyn Kizer
 * 1990: Lamont Poetry Selection for The City in Which I Love You
 * Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award, from New York University, for Rose
 * American Book Award, from the Before Columbus Foundation, for The Wingéd Seed: A Remembrance
 * 1988: Whiting Writers' Award
 * 1995: Lannan Literary Award
 * 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

Poetry

 * 1986: Rose. Rochester: BOA Editions Limited, ISBN 0-918526-53-1
 * 1990: The City In Which I Love You. Rochester: BOA Editions Limited, ISBN 0-918526-83-3
 * 2001: Book of My Nights. Rochester: BOA Editions Limited, ISBN 1929918089
 * 2008: Behind My Eyes. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., ISBN 0393334813

Memoir

 * The Wingéd Seed: A Remembrance. (hardcover) New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. ASIN: B000NGRB2G (paperback) St. Paul: Ruminator, 1999. ISBN 1-886913-28-5