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.

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 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:
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.

Selected bibliography

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 1-929918-08-9
2008: Behind My Eyes. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., ISBN 0-393-33481-3

Memoir

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

References

Wikipedia—https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Young_Lee