Asian-American poet to read at UNCW
Imagine a world in which Hansel and Gretel are 21st-century Korean Americans navigating a dark universe, even after the witch goes into the oven.
Or imagine a world of plants, insects, jellyfish and other creatures are rendered in delicate, colored glass.
This is all part of the imagination of Anna Maria Hong, a contemporary American poet who's been hailed for bringing new life to old forms.
Hong will be in Wilmington on Tuesday for a poetry reading and on-campus Q&A at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
"We're really excited," said Anna Lena Phillips Bell, editor of UNCW's literary journal Ecotone.
Hong's verse has appeared twice in Ecotone over the years. Her poem, "Yonder, A Rental," from Ecotone No. 22 was anthologized in the 2018 edition of "Best American Poetry."
It was a very good year; in 2018, Hong also had two major books released.
"H&G," a novel released by Sidebrow Books, retells the story of Hansel and Gretel. "...more than a fractured fairy tale for the Doom Generation," wrote critic Josh Emmons. "It’s a mordantly funny dismantling of loss and abandonment."
Also released was "Age of Glass," a poetry cycle from the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. Anita Olivia Koester praised Hong for sticking to the formalism of the sonnet, yet using it to play with with limits of language. One sonnet consists only of the words "I," "do," love" and "you," in different configurations. Others retell the Greek myths of Persephone and Circe.
Hong writes that the sonnet cycle was in part inspired by the works of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, 19th century German glassblowers who produced meticulously accurate models of flowers, jellywish, sea anemones and butterflies, made completely of glass. Glass preserves, but as Hong writes, "It is our glass to raise and smash," with destruction making possible a new creation.
A graduate of Yale, Hong earned her MFA from the University of Texas' Michener Center for Writers. She was a Bunting Fellow at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Her poems have appeared in The Nation, Poetry, the Iowa Review, Green Mountains Review, Harvard Review and The Volta, among many other publications, and she is the editor of "Growing Up Asian American," an anthology of fiction and memoir.
Having taught at Penn State, UCLA and Ursinius College, Hong recently joined the literature faculty at Bennington College in Vermont.
Reporter Ben Steelman can be reached at 910-616-1788 or Ben.Steelman@StarNewsOnline.com.
2 events with Hong
What: Poetry reading with Anna Maria Hong
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 4
Where: Room 1111 Kenan Hall, UNCW campus
Details: Free
Information: 910-962-7063
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What: Q&A session with poet Anna Maria Hong
When: 12:30 p.m. Feb. 4
Where: Randall Library Auditorium, UNCW campus
Details: Free.
Information: 910-962-7063