Ed Bok Lee is an American poet and writer. He is the author of three books of poetry, including ''Mitochondrial Night'' (2019), ''Whorled'', the recipient of a 2012 American Book Award and a 2012 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, and ''Real Karaoke People'' (New Rivers Press), the recipient of a 2006

PEN/Open Book Award PEN/Open Book (known as the Beyond Margins Award through 2009) is a program intended to foster racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities, and works to establish access for diverse literary groups to the publishing i ...

and a 2006 Asian American Literary Award (Members' Choice Award).

Early life and education

Lee was raised in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

and

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. He studied Slavic and Central Asian Studies at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

; Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in

Almaty Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

;

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he was enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in Slavic Languages and Literatures. He later received a

master of fine arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. He teaches part-time at Metropolitan State University. ^[4

Poetry and other writings

Lee primarily writes poetry, though other published works include lyric prose, plays, short stories, and what he has referred to as "poelogues", which derive technical elements from and often fall between poetry, the dramatic monologue, the soliloquy, and the duologue. Initially influenced by the poetry of Yi Sang, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Bertold Brecht, and Ai, since first visiting Los Angeles in 1992 then living throughout Russia and Central Asia from 1993 to 1995, Lee's have included accounts from a wide range of points of view: a Korean youth killed in the 1992 L.A. Riots, the younger son of an Asian immigrant grocer, a Soviet-Afghan Muslim war rebel, the first rhinoceros in space, a professional blackjack player, a professional wrestler, a Vietnamese mail order bride, an inter-dimensional being, a Korean clone, a U.S. Iraq War veteran, a U.S. Iraq War veteran's wife, conscripted Mongol foot soldiers, a DMT molecule, an immeasurable field in the multiverse, an Asian American male porn star, a Korean prostitute, an undefined particle within Dark Matter, a Hmong American hunter accused of murder (inverted ), a meth cook, Asian carp (invasive species), a Norway Maple tree (invasive species), English Ivy (invasive species), an opium poppy farmer, Prince (music icon), among others.

Select recognition

In 2009, Lee was a featured author at the American Library Association Conference in Chicago, IL. In 2009, Lee was listed as one of the top 10 artists of the decade based out of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul by the ''Minnesota Daily''. Lee was a featured author at PEN America, New York, NY in 2010. Lee was a featured poet at the 10th annual Sarah Lawrence College Poetry Festival in 2013. Lee was the featured author at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea, in 2014. Lee took up residency at the

American Swedish Institute The American Swedish Institute (ASI) is a museum and cultural center in the Phillips West neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The organization is dedicated to the preservation and study of the historic role Sweden and Swedish A ...

in 2014. In 2019, Lee was a featured poet at Poets House in New York, NY. Lee was a featured author at City Lights Books in San Francisco, CA, in 2019. Lee was a featured author at the Asian Literature Festival in South Korea in 2020.

References

External links

Lee's Bio
on

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Rut ...

Official website''Water in Love''''My Eyes Met His'' and ''Chewing Gum''The Margins Interview with Sueyeun Juliette LeeOn Ed Bok Lee's Poem, 'The Schooner Bar' by David Mura in Gulf CoastDiodeGreg Choy, ''International Examiner'', book review''Minneapolis Star Tribune'', book review by John Freeman

Rain Taxi interview with Scott F. Parker"Kartika Review" Interview by Editorial BoardBook Review, Knight Arts by Susannah SchouweilerBook Review ''San Francisco Chronicle''
by Marianne Villanueva
Book Review ''Boxcar Poetry,'' book review by Mary Chi-Whi KimMinneapolis Observer, book review by Rebecca West
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Ed Bok Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American poets American dramatists and playwrights of Korean descent American writers of Korean descent Brown University alumni Indiana University alumni Writers from Minnesota Writers from Fargo, North Dakota University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Minnesota alumni Al-Farabi Kazakh National University alumni American Book Award winners