Breaking the Alabaster Jar: Conversations with Li-Young Lee

Born in 1957 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents, Li-Young Lee fled the country with his family in 1959 amid anti-Chinese hostility, settling in the United States in 1964 after years in Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Arizona, and the State University of New York at Brockport. His debut collection, Rose (BOA Editions, 1986), won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award, and The City in Which I Love You (BOA Editions, 1990) was the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets. His memoir The Winged Seed (Simon & Schuster, 1995) received an American Book Award. He has held a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant.