Critically acclaimed poet Li-Young Lee will read his poetry at Greenwich Library on Sunday, May 13 at 2 p.m. as part of The Poet’s Voice series. A Q&A will follow the reading and books will be available for purchase and signing through Diane’s Books.
Lee is the author of five critically acclaimed books of poetry, the most recent of which is The Undressing. Lee’s newest collection investigates the violence and dispossession increasingly prevalent around the world, as well as the horrors he grew up with as a child of refugees.
Through the observation and translation of often unassuming and silent moments, Lee gives clear voice to the solemn and extraordinary beauty found within humanity. By employing hauntingly lyrical skill and astute poetic awareness, Lee allows silence, sound, form, and spirit to emerge brilliantly onto the page.
His poetry reveals a dialogue between the eternal and the temporal, and accentuates the joys and sorrows of family, home, loss, exile, and love.
Lee’s honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Lannan Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, as well as grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 1988 he received the Writer’s Award from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. He is also featured in Katja Esson‘s documentary, Poetry of Resilience.
Born in 1957 of Chinese parents in Jakarta, Indonesia, Lee learned early about loss and exile. His great-grandfather was China’s first Republican President; and his father, a deeply religious Christian, was the physician to Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Lee’s parents escaped to Indonesia. In 1959, his father, after spending a year as a political prisoner in President Sukarno’s jails, fled Indonesia with his family to escape anti-Chinese sentiment. After a five-year trek through Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan, they settled in the United States in 1964.
This special reading is open to the public at no charge and will be held in the Library Meeting Room. For more information email Poet’s Voice Series Coordinator, Librarian Alice Bonvenuto at abonvenuto@greenwichlibrary.org or call 203-622-7919.
