City in Which I Love You

Li-Young Lee (born in Jakarta, Indonesia) is a Chinese-Indonesian American poet whose family fled Indonesia in 1959 following persecution under Sukarno. He grew up in various Asian countries before the family settled in the United States. He studied at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Arizona, and SUNY Brockport. His debut collection Rose (BOA Editions, 1986) won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award, and The City in Which I Love You (BOA, 1990) was the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets. His work explores his Chinese heritage, his father's ministry, and the tensions between memory and presence. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA grant, and the American Book Award.