Marilyn Chin (陈美玲) is a prominent

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

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 the world. Marilyn Chin's work is a frequent subject of academic research and literary criticism. Marilyn Chin has read her poetry at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Life

She grew up in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, after her family emigrated from

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 Delt ...

. She received an M.F.A. 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 a B.A. from

University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...

Her poetry focuses on social issues, especially those related to Asian American feminism and bi-cultural identity. Marilyn Chin has won numerous awards for her poetry, including the United Artists Foundation Fellowship, the

Radcliffe Institute The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...

Fellowship at Harvard, the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

Fellowship at Bellagio, the SeaChange fellowship from the Gaia Foundation, two

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 ...

grants, the

Stegner Fellowship The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner (1909–1993), a historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty mem ...

, the

PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award The PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award is for U.S. multicultural writers, to "promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the media as to the nature of multicultural work. ...

, five

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

s, a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

to Taiwan and the

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Clev ...

. She is featured in several authoritative anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, The

Norton Anthology of Literature by Women ''The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women: The Traditions in English'', published by W. W. Norton & Company, is one of the Norton Anthology series for use in English literary studies. It is edited by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. This vo ...

, The Norton Introduction to Poetry, The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry, Unsettling America, The Open Boat and The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry. She was interviewed by

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers, June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Counci ...

and featured in his PBS series "The Language of Life." Her poem “The Floral Apron” was introduced by Garrison Keillor on the PBS special “Poetry Everywhere."” It was also chosen by the BBC to represent the region of Hong Kong during the 2012 Olympics in London. Marilyn Chin is professor emerita at the Department of English and Comparative Literature at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

."Marilyn Chin"
Poets.org In January 2018, she was elected a Chancellor 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 outreac ...

Awards and honors

*2020

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 ...

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation, which also publishes ''Poetry'' magazine. The prize was established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly. It honors a living U.S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordina ...

*2019

The American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqua ...

Award in Literature *2018

Chancellor *2014

California Book Awards The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to everyone. Act ...

Poetry Finalist for "Hard Love Province" *

Fellowship at Harvard *

Fellowship at Bellagio *Two

Fellowships *2007

United States Artists United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards. Mission The organization' ...

Fellowship *The

*Five

to Taiwan *The SeaChange Fellowship from the Gaea Foundation *1995

Residencies

Civitella Ranieri Foundation The Civitella Ranieri Foundation is an American artists’ community located at a 15th-century castle in the Umbria region of Italy. The Foundation provides four sessions of six-week long unstructured residencies every year to visual artists, ...

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowell ...

* Lannan Foundation * Djerassi Foundation

Selected bibliography

;Poetry
Dwarf Bamboo
Greenfield Review Press, 1987, *
The Phoenix Gone, the Terrace Empty
' Milkweed Editions, 1994, ; Milkweed Editions, 2009, *
Rhapsody in Plain Yellow: Poems
' W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, *
Hard Love Province: Poems
' W. W. Norton & Company, 2014, *
A Portrait of the Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems
' W. W. Norton & Company, 2018, ;Fiction * ;Edited Anthologies * * ;Translations * * ;Scholarship Chin's work is the subject of a number of scholarly essays. A recent one explores the ironic voices in "Rhapsody in Plain Yellow" that challenge self-hatred and self colonization.

References

External links

Marilyn Chin's Official Website

*

Academy of American Poets
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chin, Marilyn American writers of Chinese descent Living people 1955 births Hong Kong poets American feminists Poets from Oregon University of Iowa alumni American women poets PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award winners Writers from Portland, Oregon 21st-century American women writers Hong Kong women activists 21st-century American poets San Diego State University faculty Hong Kong women writers Hong Kong emigrants to the United States Activists from Oregon