Kimiko Hahn (born July 5, 1955) is an American poet and distinguished professor in the MFA program of

Queens College, CUNY Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body ...

. Her works frequently deal with the reinvention of poetic forms and the intersecting of conflicting identities.

Biography

Hahn was born in

Mount Kisco, New York Mount Kisco is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village and Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The town of Mount Kisco is coterminous municipality, coterminous with the vil ...

on July 5, 1955. Her parents are both artists. Her mother, Maude Miyako Hamai, was a

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

from

Maui, Hawaii The island of Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th largest island in the United S ...

; her father, Walter Hahn, was a

German American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

from

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. They met in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where Walter was a friend of the notable African American author

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote ''Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collecti ...

. Her sister is Tomie Hahn, a performer and ethnologist. Hahn grew up in

Pleasantville, New York Pleasantville is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located 30 miles north of Manhattan. The village population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. Pleasantville is home to the secondary camp ...

, and between 1964 and 1965, the Hahns later lived in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. As a teen, she became involved in the New York City

Asian American movement The Asian American movement was a sociopolitical movement in which the widespread grassroots effort of Asian Americans affected racial, social and political change in the U.S, reaching its peak in the late 1960s to mid-1970s. During this period Asia ...

of the 1970s. Zhou Xiaojing has commented that her racially mixed background influenced "her profound understanding of the politics of the body" as seen in her poetry (113). In the U.S., her Asian appearance made some schoolmates "called her Chinese or Japanese, never regarding her as an American like them. Yet when she went to Japan … her schoolmates

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...

called her American or 'gaijin'" (113). Hahn received a bachelor's degree in English and

East Asian Studies East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, hist ...

from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

and an M.A. in

Japanese Literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She is a distinguished professor at

and has also taught at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

, and

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

. Hahn has two daughters, Miyako Tess (b. 1987) and Reiko Lily (b. 1990), from her second marriage to Ted Hannan. She has been married to true crime writer

Harold Schechter Harold Schechter (born June 28, 1948) is an American true crime writer who specializes in serial killers. He is a Professor Emeritus at Queens College, City University of New York where he taught classes in American literature and myth criticism ...

since 2002.

Poetry works

The major themes of Hahn's poetry explores Asian American female desire and subjectivity. The judges' citation from the Pen/Voelcker Award noted: "With wild courage Kimiko Hahn's poems voyage fearlessly into explorations of love, sexuality, motherhood, violence, and grief and the way gender inscribes us." Her poetry draws from feminist works of

Hélène Cixous Hélène Cixous (; ; born 5 June 1937) is a French writer, playwright and literary critic. She is known for her experimental writing style and great versatility as a writer and thinker, her work dealing with multiple genres: theater, literary an ...

Luce Irigaray Luce Irigaray (born 3 May 1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst, and cultural theorist who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women. Irigaray's first and most well know ...

, and

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "th ...

, more canonical American poets such as

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National B ...

and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

poetic experimentations, as well as Japanese culture and literature. The title of ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'' (W.W. Norton, 2006), for instance, is drawn from Bashō's ''

Oku no Hosomichi ''Oku no Hosomichi'' (, originally ), translated as ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North'' and ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'', is a major work of ''haibun'' by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, considered one of the major texts of Japanese l ...

.'' In an interview with Laurie Sheck for

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...

, Hahn discussed how she combines a variety of genres in her work, including Japanese forms, such as

zuihitsu is a genre of Japanese literature consisting of loosely connected personal essays and fragmented ideas that typically respond to the author's surroundings. The name is derived from two Kanji meaning "at will" and "pen." The provenance of the ter ...

in her poetry collection, ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'': "The Japanese view it uihitsus a distinct genre, although its elements are difficult to pin down. There's no Western equivalent, though some people might wish to categorize it as a prose poem or an essay. You mentioned some of its characteristics: a kind of randomness that is not really random, but a feeling of randomness; a pointed subjectivity that we don't normally associate with the essay. The zuihitsu can also resemble other Western forms: lists, journals. I've added emails to the mix. Fake emails....The technique of collage is really compelling to me. Letter writing, diary form—real and invented—I like to use within the zuihitsu itself." Her poems were first published in ''We Stand Our Ground: Three Women, Their Vision, Their Poem''s, which she co-created with Gale Jackson and Susan Sherman. Since then, she has authored multiple collections of poetry, including ''Toxic Flora'' (2010), ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'' (2006), ''The Artist's Daughter'' (2002), ''Mosquito and Ant'' (1999), ''Volatile'' (1998), ''The Unbearable Heart'' (1995), and ''Earshot'' (1992). The latter, ''Earshot'', received the

Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize The Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize is an American poetry prize given once every three years since being established in 1967. The Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize has been offered in Saginaw, Michigan, since 1965. It is now administ ...

and an Association of Asian American Studies Literature Award. In 1996, her poem "Possession: A Zuihitsu" (originally published in ''Another Chicago Magazine'') was included in the anthology the

Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...

, and ''The Unbearable Heart'' received an

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 ...

. Other honors for her work include the Lila Wallace–Reader's Digest Writer's Award, the Shelley Memorial Prize, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. She has received fellowships from 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 ...

, Guggenheim Foundation, and the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

. Aside from poetry, Hahn has written for film such as the 1995 two-hour HBO special, "Ain't Nuthin' But a She-Thing" (for which she also recorded the voice-overs); and most recently, a text for "Everywhere at Once," Holly Fisher's film based on Peter Lindbergh's still photos and narrated by Jeanne Moreau. The latter premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and presented at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Bibliography

Poetry

* ''Air Pocket.'' Hanging Loose Press, 1989. * ''

Earshot Earshot is an American alternative metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1999. The band's lineup has changed several times during their existence, with vocalist Wil Martin being the band's sole constant member. After signing to Warner Bros. Reco ...

.'' Hanging Loose Press, 1992. * ''The Unbearable Heart.''

Kaya Press Kaya Press is an independent non-profit publisher of writers of the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora. Founded in 1994 by the postmodern Korean writer Soo Kyung Kim, Kaya Press is currently housed in the Department of American Studies and Ethnic ...

, 1995. * * ''Volatile.'' Hanging Loose Press, 1999. * ''Pine''. 1999 * ''Mosquito and Ant: Poems.''

W.W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton Ant ...

, 1999. * ''The Artist's Daughter: Poems'' W.W. Norton, 2002. * ''The Narrow Road to the Interior: Poems.'' W.W. Norton, 2006. * "A Field Guide to the Intractable: Zuihitsu." Small Anchor Press chapbook, 2009. * ''Toxic Flora: Poems.'' W.W. Norton, 2010. * * * ''Brain Fever.'' W.W. Norton, 2014. * ''(Write It!)''

Wells College Wells College is a private liberal arts college in Aurora, New York. The college has cross-enrollment with Cornell University and Ithaca College. For much of its history it was a women's college. Wells College is located in the Finger Lakes reg ...

Press, 2019. * ''Foreign Bodies.'' W. W. Norton, 2020. Selected broadsides * ''Walt Whitman Circle.'' 2015. * ''3/3: Volume 1, Issue 1.'' with Lauren Henken. 2013. With Gale Jackson and Susan Sherman * ''We Stand Our Ground: Three Women, Their Vision, Their Poems.'' Ikon, Inc., 1988.

Prose

*"Memory, Language, and Desire." ''Asian Americans: Collages of Identities: Proceedings of Cornell Symposium of Asian America, Issues of Identity.'' Ed. Lee C. Lee. Cornell University Press, 1992. 64-69. OCLC 34909762 *"Afterbirth." ''Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian America Fiction''. Ed. and intro.

Jessica Hagedorn Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn (born 1949) is an American playwright, writer, poet, and multimedia performance artist. Biography Hagedorn is an American of mixed descent. She was born in Manila to a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Spanish Fi ...

. Penguin Books, 1993.

Interviews

*"Kimiko Hahn: Expressing Self and Desire, Even If One Must Writhe." By Eileen Tabios. ''Black Lightning: Poetry-In-Progress''. New York: Asian American Writers' Workshop. 1998. *
Kimiko Hahn
" By Laurie Sheck.

96 (Summer 2006)"Kimiko Hahn, Interview." By Laurie Sheck.

96 (Summer 2006

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Awards

* 2008

PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry The PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry is given biennially to an American poet whose distinguished and growing body of work to date represents a notable and accomplished presence in American literature. The award is one of many PEN awards sponsored by ...

. * 2008

* Association of Asian America Studies Literature Award * Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award *

Shelley Memorial Award The Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, was established by the will of Mary P. Sears, and named after the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The prize is given to a living American poet selected with reference to genius and need, and is ...

from the

Poetry Society of America The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

* The

fellowships * N.Y. Foundation for the Arts fellowships * 2010 Guggenheim Fellow

References

Critical studies

#Kimiko Hahn's 'Interlingual Poetics' in ''Mosquito and Ant'' By: Grotjohn, Robert. pp. 219–34 IN: Lim, Shirley Geok-lin (ed.); Gamber, John Blair (ed.); Sohn, Stephen Hong (ed.); Valentino, Gina (ed.); ''Transnational Asian American Literature: Sites and Transits''. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP; 2006. viii, 306 pp. (book article) #Two Hat Softeners 'In the Trade Confession':

John Yau John Yau (born June 5, 1950) is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction ...

and Kimiko Hahn By: Zhou, Xiaojing. pp. 168–89 IN: Zhou, Xiaojing (ed. and introd.); Najmi, Samina (ed.); ''Form and Transformation in Asian American Literature''. Seattle, WA: U of Washington P; 2005. 296 pp. (book article) #'I Cannot Find Her': The Oriental Feminine, Racial Melancholia, and Kimiko Hahn's ''The Unbearable Heart'' By: Chang, Juliana; ''Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism'', 2004; 4 (2): 239-60. (journal article) #Mixing Aesthetics. A Poet's Cityscape: Kimiko Hahn By: Schlote, Christiane. pp. 541–59 IN: Alonso Gallo, Laura P. (ed. and introd.); ''Voces de América/American Voices: Entrevistas a escritores americanos/Interviews with American Writers''. Cádiz, Spain: Aduana Vieja; 2004. 730 pp. (book article) #Pulse and Impulse: The

Zuihitsu is a genre of Japanese literature consisting of loosely connected personal essays and fragmented ideas that typically respond to the author's surroundings. The name is derived from two Kanji meaning "at will" and "pen." The provenance of the ter ...

By: Hahn, Kimiko. pp. 75–82 IN: Dienstfrey, Patricia (ed.); Hillman, Brenda (ed.); DuPlessis, Rachel Blau (foreword); ''The Grand Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP; 2003. xxvi, 278 pp. (book article) #''

's Choreography with Sex and Race'' By: Mori, Kaori; Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences, 2002 July; 63 (1): 189. State U of New York, Buffalo, 2002. (dissertation abstract) #To Adore a Fragment: An Interview with Kimiko Hahn By: Kalamaras, George; ''Bloomsbury Review'', 1999 Mar-Apr; 19 (2): 13-14. (journal article) #Breaking from Tradition: Experimental Poems by Four Contemporary Asian American Women Poets By: Xiaojing, Zhou; ''Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses'', 1998 Nov; 37: 199-218. (journal article) #Huang, Guiyou and Emmanuel Sampath Nelson, eds. ''Asian-American Poets: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook''. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2002. 113-9. #Hara, Marie and Nora Okja Keller, eds. Intersecting Circles: The Voices of Hapa Women in Poetry and Prose. Baboo Ridge Press, 1999 #Wallinger-Schorn, Brigitte."Appendix: Interviews: Interviews with Kimiko Hahn." "So There it Is": An Exploration of Cultural Hybridity in Contemporary Asian American Poetry. Rodopi, 2011. 249-291.

External links

* Audio
Kimiko Hahn reads "Sparrow"
from the book ''The Narrow Road to the Interior'' * Audio
Kimiko Hahn reads "Cope's Rule"
from the book ''Toxic Flora''

Kimiko Hahn in conversation with Emily Moore
at ''

Loggernaut Loggernaut Reading Series is a reading series in Portland, Oregon founded in 2005. Each reading features three readers and a prompt to which they respond. It is currently curated by Jesse Lichtenstein, Erin Ergenbright, and Pauls Toutonghi. Past re ...

''. Fall 2006.
Kimiko Hahn interviewed by Laurie Sheck: ''BOMB Magazine''

The Poetry of Science Interview
in the ''New York Times'' TierneyLab Blog, July 14, 2009. *

The Poetry Center at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

"From The Narrow Road to the Interior by Kimiko Hahn,"
''Reading Between A&B''
"A Conversation with Kimiko Hahn." Interviewed by Wendy Chin-Tanner.
Lantern Review Blog: Asian American Poetry Unbounded. 19 December 2011

Poems online

The Waiting Room
" "Residue of God," ''atlengthmag''
"Alba", "Allure", "Awareness", and "My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants,"
''Cerise Press'' 1.3 (Spring 2010)
“Raptor,” “The Apiculturalist
" ''Kenyon Review''
“Just Walk Away Renee,” “A Meditation on Magnetic Fields,”
Clementine Magazine

''Storyscape Online Journal'' 4 October 2009
"Cope's Rule," "Nepenthe," "Magpie Lark," '
PEN'' 2008
“Bumble Bees,”
''On Earth + podcast''
“The Fever,”
''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * ''The New ...

'' 27 August 2007
“The Light,”
''

'' 06 May 2002
“The Dilemma of Closure (August 8–10)”
''Storyscape Online Journal''

''Storyscape Online Journal''
"Like Lavrinia,"
''Verse Daily''

ttp://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/xconnect/index-text.html ''Cross X Connect''9.3.3 (March 1998)
"The Line,"
''Kimiko Hahn Poetry''

Poetry Center at

"In Childhood"
''Poem Hunter''

" ''Reading Between A&B'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hahn, Kimiko 1955 births American people of German descent American poets American poets of Asian descent American writers of Japanese descent Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Queens College, City University of New York faculty Living people University of Iowa alumni American women poets People from Mount Kisco, New York People from Pleasantville, New York American Book Award winners 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American women writers of Asian descent

Biography

Poetry works

Bibliography

Poetry

Prose

Interviews

Awards

See also

References

Critical studies

External links

Poems online