Karen An-hwei Lee
Encyclopedia
Life
Born in 1973 and raised in MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Lee is a Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
poet, translator, and critic. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
and a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. A former resident writing fellow at the MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
for the Arts in Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census. Home to the MacDowell Art Colony, the town is a popular tourist destination....
and the Millay Colony for the Arts
Millay Colony for the Arts
The Millay Colony for the Arts is an artist residency program in Austerlitz, New York. The colony offers one month residencies to visual artists, writers, poets and composers. The Millay Colony for the Arts was founded in 1973 by Norma Millay Ellis, sister of the poet Edna St...
in Austerlitz, New York
Austerlitz, New York
Austerlitz is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,453 at the 2000 census. The town was named after the Battle of Austerlitz.The Town of Austerlitz is in the east part of Columbia County.- History :Ellis, Capt...
, Lee currently resides in Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
.
Her first poetry book, In Medias Res: a primer of experience in approximate alphabetical order, was selected by poet Heather McHugh
Heather McHugh
-Life:Heather McHugh, a poet, translator, and educator, was born in San Diego, California, to Canadian parents, John Laurence, a marine biologist, and Eileen Francesca . They raised McHugh in Gloucester Point, Virginia. There, her father directed the marine biological laboratory on the York River...
and published to critical acclaim by Sarabande Books
Sarabande Books
Sarabande Books is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1994, and located in Louisville, Kentucky, publishing poetry, fiction and nonfiction.The press was co-founded by Sarah Gorham and Jeffrey Skinner...
in 2004. Lee received national accolades including six Pushcart Prize
Pushcart Prize
The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
nominations, a National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Grant, the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award
Norma Farber First Book Award
The Norma Farber First Book Award is given by the Poetry Society of America "for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition during the calendar year"....
, the Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry from Sarabande Books, and the July Open sponsored by Tupelo Press
Tupelo Press
Tupelo Press is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1999. It produced its first titles in 2001, publishing poetry, fiction and non-fiction...
.
Her poetry and fiction has appeared in Greensboro Review, Prairie Schooner, Columbia Poetry Review, and a number of other publications. She is the author of a chapbook, God's One Hundred Promises (Swan Scythe Press, 2002), and a second full-length collection, Ardor (Tupelo Press, 2008).
Awards
- 2005 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Grant
- 2004 Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book AwardNorma Farber First Book AwardThe Norma Farber First Book Award is given by the Poetry Society of America "for a first book of original poetry written by an American and published in either a hard or soft cover in a standard edition during the calendar year"....
. - 2004 Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry, Sarabande Books
- 2002 Swan Scythe Press Prize
- Eisner Prize, University of California, Berkeley
- Yoshiko Uchida Foundation Fellowship
- Beinecke Foundation Fellowship
- John Hawkes Prize, Brown University