Breaking the Alabaster Jar: Conversations with Li-Young Lee

Lee, Li-Young

ISBN 10: 1929918828 / ISBN 13: 9781929918829

Published by BOA Editions, 2006

First Edition with a complete numberline. A Near Fine copy with light shelfwear and an uncreased spine. 6 x 9 in., 191 pp. Internally clean and free of markings. // From the publisher: 'Li-Young Lee's first book Rose is in its 29th printing and has sold over 80000 copies. Combined, his 4 books have sold over 200000 copies and are regularly course adopted. Li-Young Lee is by no means an academic poet and his connection, dedication, and elucidation of every-day spirituality has garnered legions of dedicated fans. Five years since his William Carlos Williams Award-winning poetry collection, Book of My Nights (BOA, 2001), these fans will be eager for a new Li-Young Lee title. Because these interviews touch and expand on all the key components of his poetry, the book will make an outstanding teaching and reading companion to his previous volumes.'. Seller Inventory # 642283

Synopsis:

In the foreword to Li-Young Lee’s first book, Rose (BOA Editions, 1986), Gerald Stern wrote, “What characterizes Li-Young Lee’s poetry is a certain kind of humility, a kind of cunning, a love of plain speech, a search for wisdom and understanding. . . . I think we are in the presence of a true spirit.” Poetry lovers agree! Rose has gone on to sell more than eighty thousand copies, and Li-Young Lee has become one of the country’s most beloved poets.

Breaking the Alabaster Jar: Conversations with Li-Young Lee is a collection of the best dozen interviews given by Li-Young Lee over the past twenty years. From a twenty-nine-year-old poet prodigy to a seasoned veteran in high demand for readings and appearances across the United States and abroad, these interviews capture Li-Young Lee at various stages of his artistic development. He not only discusses his family’s flight from political oppression in China and Indonesia, but how that journey affected his poetry and the engaging, often painful, insights being raised a cultural outsider in America afforded him. Other topics include spirituality (primarily Christianity and Buddhism) and a wide range of aesthetic topics such as literary influences, his own writing practices, the role of formal and informal education in becoming a writer, and his current life as a famous and highly sought-after American poet.

About the Author: Li-Young Lee was born in 1957 in Jakarta, Indonesia, of Chinese parents. His most recent book of poetry, Book of My Nights (BOA Editions, 2001), is his third. His first collection, Rose, is in its 29th printing having sold over 80000 copies. Rose is one of the best selling poetry titles in U.S. history. Dr. Earl G. Ingersoll's scholarship focuses on late 19th and early 20th century American and British literature. He has published six books based on interviews with contemporary authors including Margaret Atwood, May Sarton, Doris Lessing, Rita Dove and Lawrence Durrell. Dr. Ingersoll has taught at SUNY Brockport, New York since 1964 where he is Distinguished Professor.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Breaking the Alabaster Jar: Conversations ...
Publisher: BOA Editions
Publication Date: 2006
Binding: Trade Paperback
Condition: Near Fine
Edition: First Edition.