Garrett Kaoru Hongo (born May 30, 1951) is a Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American academic and

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 wri ...

. His work draws on Japanese American history and his own experiences.Arakawa, Suzanne K. (2005). "Hongo, Garrett (Kaoru)", in He was a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first presented in 1922, and is given for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author, published ...

for ''The River of Heaven'' (1988).

Early life

Hongo was born in Volcano, Hawai'i. He attended

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in English from the

University of California at Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. Hongo has been awarded fellowships from the

Watson Foundation The Thomas J. Watson Foundation is a charitable trust formed 1961 in honor of former chairman and CEO of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. The Foundation's stated vision is to empower students “to expand their vision, test and develop their potential, an ...

, the Guggenheim Foundation, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Career

Hongo is a professor of creative writing at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. From 1989 through 1993, he was the director of the university's Program in Creative Writing. Hongo has published three books of poetry. His first was ''Yellow Light'' (1982), and ''The River of Heaven'' (1988) was a

Lamont Poetry Selection The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

and a finalist for the

. ''Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai'i'' (1995) was awarded the 2006

Oregon Book Award The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by Literary Arts to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers ...

for Literary Nonfiction. Hongo has also worked as an editor on ''Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays and Memoir by

Wakako Yamauchi Wakako Yamauchi (October 23, 1924 – August 16, 2018) was a Japanese American writer. Her plays are considered pioneering works in Asian-American theater. Biography Yamauchi (née Nakamura) was born in Westmorland, California. Her mother and ...

'' (1994) and on ''The Open Boat: Poems from Asian America'' (1993).

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Garett Hongo, OCLC/

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

includes roughly 30+ works in 70+ publications in two languages and 4,600+ library holdings. * ''The Buddha Bandits down Highway 99'' (1978)
''Yellow Light''
(University of California, Irvine, 1980; Wesleyan University Press, 1982, ) * ''The River of Heaven'' (Knopf, 1988, ; Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2001, ) * ''The Open boat: Poems from Asian America'' (1993) * ''Volcano: A Memoir of Hawaiʻi'' (1995) * ''Coral Road: Poems'' (2011) * ''The Mirror Diary: Selected Essays'' (University of Michigan Press, 2017, ) * ''The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo'' (2022) ;Anthologies
"from Cruising 99"
''The geography of home: California's poetry of place'', Editors Christopher Buckley, Gary Young, Heyday Books, 1999,
"Yellow Light"
''Bold words: a century of Asian American writing'', Editors Rajini Srikanth, Esther Yae Iwanaga, Rutgers University Press, 2001,
"''Kapu'' Tube"
''Hawaiʻi: true stories of the island spirit'', Editors Rick Carroll, Marcie Carroll, Travelers' Tales, 1999,
"''Something Whispered in the'' Shakuhachi"
''What book!?: Buddha poems from beat to hiphop'', Editor Gary Gach, Parallax Press, 1997, *''Unsettling America: an anthology of contemporary multicultural poetry'', Editors Maria M. Gillan, Jennifer Gillan, Penguin Books, 1994,

Notes

References

* Calabrese, Joseph, and Susan Tchudi. (2006). ''Diversity: Strength and Struggle.'' New York: Pearson Longman.
OCLC 60972078
* Serafin, Steven and Alfred Bendixen. (2006)
"Hongo, Garrett (Kaoru),"
in ''The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature.'' New York: Continuum.
OCLC 61478088

* Drake, Barbara. (1992). "Garrett Kaoru Hongo," in ''American Poets since World War II,'' 3rd series (Gwynn, R. S., ed.). Detroit, Michigan: Gale.
OCLC 26158348
* Filipelli, Laurie. (1997). ''Garrett Hongo.'' Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press.
OCLC 37550317
* Fonseca, Anthony J. (2005). "Garrett Kaoru Hongo," in ''Asian American Writers'' (Madsen, Deborah L., ed.) Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale.
OCLC 57414491
* Kamada, Roy Osamu. (2006). "Postcolonial Romanticisms: Landscape and the Possibilities of Inheritance in the Work of

Jamaica Kincaid Jamaica Kincaid (; born May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua (part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda). She lives in North Bennington, Vermo ...

, Garrett Hongo and Derek Walcott," in ''Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences,'' 2006 Jan; 66 (7): 2573. U of California, Davis, 2005. (dissertation abstract) * Schröder, Nicole. (2006). ''Spaces and Places in Motion: Spatial Concepts in Contemporary American Literature'' Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr.
OCLC 76949181
* Witonsky, Trudi. (2000). "Twilight Conversations: Multicultural Dialogue," in ''Asian American Studies: Identity, Images, Issues Past and Present'' (Ghymn, Esther Mikyung, ed.) New York: Peter Lang.
OCLC 40881565
; Journals * Colley, Sharon E. "An Interview with Garrett Hongo," ''Forkroads: A Journal of Ethnic-American Literature'', 1996 Summer; 4: 47-63. * Hull, Glynda. "''This Wooden Shack Place'': the Logic of an Unconventional Reading," ''College Composition and Communication'', 1990 Oct; 41 (3): 287-98. * Jarman, Mark. "The Volcano Inside," ''The Southern Review'', 1996 Spring; 32 (2): 337-43. * McCormick, Adrienne. "Theorizing Difference in Asian American Poetry Anthologies," ''MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States'', 2004 Fall-Winter; 29 (3-4): 59-80. * Sato, Gayle K. "Cultural Recuperation in Garrett Hongo's ''The River of Heaven''," ''Studies in American Literature'' (Kyoto, Japan), 2001 Feb; 37: 57-74. * Slowik, Mary. "Beyond Lot's Wife: the Immigration Poems of

Marilyn Chin Marilyn Chin (陈美玲) is a prominent Chinese American poet, writer, activist, and feminist, as well as an editor and Professor of English. She is well-represented in major canonical anthologies and textbooks and her work is taught all over th ...

, Garrett Hongo,

Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee (李立揚, pinyin: Lǐ Lìyáng) (born August 19, 1957) is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal great-grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted ...

, and

David Mura David Mura (born 1952) is an American author, poet, novelist, playwright, critic and performance artist whose writings explore the themes of race, identity and history. In 2018, Mura has published a book on creative writing, ''A Stranger’s Jour ...

," ''MELUS'', 2000 Fall-Winter; 25 (3-4): 221-42.

External links

Academy of American Poets bio
(accessed March 2008)

(accessed March 2008)

on ''

Words on a Wire A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hongo, Garrett 1951 births Living people Poets from Hawaii American poets of Asian descent University of Oregon faculty Pomona College alumni Writers from Oregon American writers of Japanese descent University of California, Irvine alumni University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets