Breaking the Alabaster Jar: Conversations with Li-Young Lee

By Li-Young Lee

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1929918828
• ISBN13: 9781929918829
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: BOA Editions
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

feel the voice

Great poetry by an excellent poet.Let it wash over you as you read it....you will be cleansed and energized.

Get a little close into Lee's workings

The interviews here span a good period of time, so there is some repetition of material, but there is also some great insight into Lee's working process and work. It's a good gateway into some of his poems, and if you want to get to know one of poetry's modern masters, this is one way to go about doing it.

A true poetic genius and visionary

I've collected interviews with Li-Young Lee and attended two of his workshops in the last seven years and this book is the culmination of his poetic strategies, efforts, and vision. I was hoping to see the interviews I've enjoyed reading in this book and WAS NOT disappointed. If anything, this book shows I'm not the only one who has enjoyed Lee's voice and positive attitudes about writing poetry. If you love his work, or wish to read about poetry and its relationship to the universe/God, this is a wonderful introduction and insight to Lee's vision.