Carolyn Leilani Yu Zhen Lau (aka Carolyn Lau) (born 1946

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

) is an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Biography

Lei-Lanilau is Hawaiian of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

ancestry. She graduated from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

with an M.A. in English. She also studied Chinese philosophy. She is an educator who teaches poetry and movement to bilingual Chinese and Southeast Asian immigrant children. Her work appeared in ''The Bloomsbury Review'', ''The American Poetry Review'', ''Manoa'', ''Yellow Silk'', ''Zyzzyva'', and ''Calyx''. She lectured at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

at Manoa and at West O'ahu, Tianjin Foreign Languages Institute in

Hexi District, Tianjin Hexi District ( is a district in the south-western corner of urban Tianjin, People's Republic of China. It is bordered by Heping District in the north-west, Hedong District to the north-east and Nankai District to the west. As of 2020, the distr ...

China, and

California State University, East Bay California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 pos ...

. She divides her time between

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Awards

* 1988

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

, for ''Wode Shuofa: My Way of Speaking'' * California Arts Council Fellowship

Works

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Anthologies

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lei-Lanilau, Carolyn 1946 births American people of Chinese descent Writers from Honolulu Living people American women poets San Francisco State University alumni Hakka culture Hakka writers American Book Award winners