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NOV 2013
Every poem has its own fate. Sometimes the old ones return just to check on you. My poem "Meteorology" published in the issue 16 of Redactions has been nominated for a Pushcart. Check out the poem and other fellow nominees here.
Every poem has its own fate. Sometimes the old ones return just to check on you. My poem "Meteorology" published in the issue 16 of Redactions has been nominated for a Pushcart. Check out the poem and other fellow nominees here.
SEPT 2013
I am thrilled to take part in this year's Hong Kong International Literary Festival. Check out my event here.
I am thrilled to take part in this year's Hong Kong International Literary Festival. Check out my event here.
Aug 2013
My poem "Suicide Mission" has been mentioned in a review of this fabulous queer poetry anthology published by Sibling Rivalry Press.
Click to read the complete review here: World Literature Today.
Click to read the complete review here: World Literature Today.
A great way to end the summer: a new poem out in the Queer Issue of World Literature Today. In the introduction, George Henson writes:
"During an email exchange, Nicholas YB Wong told me that he feels “linguistically inferior” because he is a Chinese poet who lives in [Hong Kong] but publishes in English in the United States. Wong’s anxiety about writing in a foreign tongue is misplaced. His poetry displays a linguistic command that few poets achieve. When I asked what poets he admired, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he read gay poet D. A. Powell—surprised because other than sharing a neoformalist and elliptical aesthetic, Wong’s unerotic verse has little in common with Powell’s homoerotic poetics.
According to Wong, “Inside America” (page 47) evokes “America as an interior space housing the narrator who is trapped between the impulse to leave and the obsessive, fetishistic attention to details of the ‘house.’” Instead of an erotic poetics, however, Wong constructs poetics of place and belonging. The poem’s primary moment occurs when Wong exhorts the reader, “Call me faggot,” an echo of Melville’s “Call me Ishmael,” in which faggot, like Ishmael, serves as a metonymy for the Other. This imperative not only marks a shift from first to second person, establishing the reader as interlocutor, it also functions as an act of self-naming, a positive declaration of queer identity."
"During an email exchange, Nicholas YB Wong told me that he feels “linguistically inferior” because he is a Chinese poet who lives in [Hong Kong] but publishes in English in the United States. Wong’s anxiety about writing in a foreign tongue is misplaced. His poetry displays a linguistic command that few poets achieve. When I asked what poets he admired, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he read gay poet D. A. Powell—surprised because other than sharing a neoformalist and elliptical aesthetic, Wong’s unerotic verse has little in common with Powell’s homoerotic poetics.
According to Wong, “Inside America” (page 47) evokes “America as an interior space housing the narrator who is trapped between the impulse to leave and the obsessive, fetishistic attention to details of the ‘house.’” Instead of an erotic poetics, however, Wong constructs poetics of place and belonging. The poem’s primary moment occurs when Wong exhorts the reader, “Call me faggot,” an echo of Melville’s “Call me Ishmael,” in which faggot, like Ishmael, serves as a metonymy for the Other. This imperative not only marks a shift from first to second person, establishing the reader as interlocutor, it also functions as an act of self-naming, a positive declaration of queer identity."
July 2013
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What a nice surprise! Today I just found out that my poem becomes one of the finalists of Sycamore Review's Wabash Prize for Poetry. Congratulations to the winner and other finalists. The news was announced in issue 25.1, which I seriously urge you to take a look at. It includes a brilliant interview of Terrance Hayes and great poems by Mary Ruefle. Click on the review's image above to go to the website of the journal.
July 2013 - Poetry marathon for tupelo Press
Dear friends,
I’m excited to announce that I will be one of the ‘running’ poets in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project in July. The aim of the project is to solicit donations to support one of the finest independent presses in the States. During the month, I will be writing 30 poems in 30 days and each day (a kind of poetry marathon), a new work will be posted onto the project’s website. This is a big challenge to my patience and creative juice and I sincerely need your support. ALL money donated will go directly to the press, but I will reward you personally. This is what you will get:
Donate US$1-US$9.99 to get
Donate US$10-US$98.99 to get
Donate US$99 or above to get
I will contact every generous soul to give you the discount code and ask for your postal address personally after the press has received the donation. It won’t take long. As a poet in Hong Kong writing in a second language, I honestly know that the solitude of the writing act. Regardless who and where you are, I hope to have your companionship this time. I will also appreciate donation of any range and, of course, your effort in passing on this message to your friends, people who do not know me and my work yet.
There are nights I have spent with books, journals and my computer, just with one goal: to define myself with my writing. But with your spiritual and financial encouragement, I know I am not running this marathon alone.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE.
I’m excited to announce that I will be one of the ‘running’ poets in Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project in July. The aim of the project is to solicit donations to support one of the finest independent presses in the States. During the month, I will be writing 30 poems in 30 days and each day (a kind of poetry marathon), a new work will be posted onto the project’s website. This is a big challenge to my patience and creative juice and I sincerely need your support. ALL money donated will go directly to the press, but I will reward you personally. This is what you will get:
Donate US$1-US$9.99 to get
- a discount code for the subscription to two American literary journals, namely Baltimore Review (the print edition) and Weave,
- two of the beautiful postcards with quotes of my poems designed by me.
Donate US$10-US$98.99 to get
- a discount code for the subscription to two American literary journals, namely Baltimore Review (the print edition) and Weave,
- a full set of beautiful postcards with quotes of my poems designed by me.
Donate US$99 or above to get
- a discount code for the subscription to two American literary journals, namely Baltimore Review (the print edition) and Weave,
- a full set of beautiful postcards with quotes of my poems designed by me,
- a poem by me with a prompt given by you and dedicated to you if it’s published later on,
- a total of 9 books (to be) published by Tupelo Press in 2013. Details of book titles (shipping fees covered by the press) can be found here.
I will contact every generous soul to give you the discount code and ask for your postal address personally after the press has received the donation. It won’t take long. As a poet in Hong Kong writing in a second language, I honestly know that the solitude of the writing act. Regardless who and where you are, I hope to have your companionship this time. I will also appreciate donation of any range and, of course, your effort in passing on this message to your friends, people who do not know me and my work yet.
There are nights I have spent with books, journals and my computer, just with one goal: to define myself with my writing. But with your spiritual and financial encouragement, I know I am not running this marathon alone.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE.
- About Tupelo Press.
- Tupelo Press’s 30/30 Project, where my work will be published for 30 days consecutively in July.
- About Baltimore Review.
- About Weave.
June 2013
A new poem out in the 15th issue of Prism Review. What a fabulous cover.
May 2013
A short video on three of my published poems is up on the iTunes channel of ASU's Superstition Review. Many thanks to Donald Lung for his photos and Jolyon Cheung for putting together everything. Enjoy!
March 2013
A fabulous reading at the launch of a new issue of Cha at Harvard University's Fairbank Centre.
Nov 2012
A few poems of mine have been reprinted in the Hong Kong Feature in the fifth anniversary of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. Check out the unique and sharp voices of my contemporaries here.
A few poems of mine have been reprinted in the Hong Kong Feature in the fifth anniversary of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. Check out the unique and sharp voices of my contemporaries here.
Sept 2012
I am one of the finalists of 2012 New Letters Poetry Award. Congratulations to everyone who has made this far and of course, the winner. View the complete list here.
I will be on a panel discussing language, culture and writing in Asia with a few writers in this year's Hong Kong International Literary Festival on 13 Oct. Check out the details here.
I am one of the finalists of 2012 New Letters Poetry Award. Congratulations to everyone who has made this far and of course, the winner. View the complete list here.
I will be on a panel discussing language, culture and writing in Asia with a few writers in this year's Hong Kong International Literary Festival on 13 Oct. Check out the details here.
July 2012
I am happy to announce that my new manuscript is a semi-finalist of the 2012 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Though it didn't win in the end, this is indeed an encouragement.
I will be co-running a workshop/seminar with Xu Xi in this year's Hong Kong International Book Fair. See the details here.
I am happy to announce that my new manuscript is a semi-finalist of the 2012 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Though it didn't win in the end, this is indeed an encouragement.
I will be co-running a workshop/seminar with Xu Xi in this year's Hong Kong International Book Fair. See the details here.
June 2012
Michael Tsang has kindly reviewed Cities of Sameness in the 16th issue of Cha. Read the review here.
"Lives" from Cities of Sameness (and originally appeared in SALA) is reviewed here. Take a look.
Michael Tsang has kindly reviewed Cities of Sameness in the 16th issue of Cha. Read the review here.
"Lives" from Cities of Sameness (and originally appeared in SALA) is reviewed here. Take a look.
