Li-Young Lee was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, of Chinese parents. After spending a year as a political prisoner, Lee’s father fled Indonesia with his family, traveling in Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan before arriving in America. Lee has studied at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Arizona, and the State University of New York at Brockport. He has taught at various universities, including Northwestern University and the University of Iowa. Lee has published a memoir, The Winged Seed (Ruminator Books, 1999), and three books of poetry, The Book of My Nights, The City in Which I Love You, and Rose (all BOA Editions, 2001, 1990, 1993), the last of which won New York University’s Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Award. Lee has received grants and fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. He currently lives in Chicago.