Wing Tek Lum (Chinese: 林永得; born November 11, 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 wri ...

. Together with a brother he also manages a family-owned real estate company, Lum Yip Kee, Ltd.

Life

He graduated from Brown University in 1969, where he majored in engineering. He edited the university’s literary magazine. He graduated from the Union Theological Seminary, with a master's degree in divinity in 1973. He worked as a social worker, and met

Frank Chin Frank Chin (born February 25, 1940) is an American author and playwright. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of Asian-American theatre. Life and career Frank Chin was born in Berkeley, California on February 25, 1940; until the age of s ...

. In 1973, he moved to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

to learn Cantonese. His work appeared in ''New York Quarterly''. Under the guidance of

Makoto Ooka is a unisex Japanese name although it is more commonly used by males. As a noun, Makoto means " sincerity" (誠) or "truth" (真, 眞). People Given name *Makoto (musician) (born 1977), drum and bass artist *Makoto (Sharan Q) ( まこと), d ...

, he participated with

Joseph Stanton Joseph Stanton is a Professor of Art History and American Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a widely published poet. His poems have appeared in ''Poetry, Poetry East, Harvard Review, Ekphrasis, New York Quarterly'', and many ...

and others in the collaborative

renshi is a form of collaborative poetry pioneered by Makoto Ōoka in the 1980s.The Japan Foundation's profile of Makoto Ōoka It is a development of traditional Japanese renga and renku, but unlike these it does not adhere to traditional strictures o ...

poem ''What the Kite Thinks''.

Awards

* 1970 Poetry Center Award (now known as the Discovery/''The Nation'' Award) * 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 ...

* 2013 Elliot Cades Award for Literature

Works

* *

Anthologies

* * * *

References

External links

"WING TEK LUM", ''Asian-American Poets''
*
"One Should Not Sleep Anymore: Poet Wing Tek Lum and the Virtues of Unpleasantness"
review by Ken Chen for

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lum, Wing Tek American male poets 1946 births Writers from Honolulu Brown University alumni Punahou School alumni Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni Living people Hawaii people of Chinese descent American Book Award winners