Facing Shadows [Paperback]

Ha Jin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

Poetry. This is the second volume of poems from Chinese ex-patriot poet Ha Jin, who moved to the United States after the Tiananmen massacre. "These poems are unflinchingly lucid, luminous, brave, and the shadows faced in this book are faced with a powerful light"--Thomas Lux. His poems have appeared in journals such as AGNI and Poetry, and he holds a doctorate in American Literature from Brandeis University. In 2004, his novel War Trash won the PEN/Faulkner award; his previous novel, Waiting, won the 1997 National Book Award. Ha Jin teaches English at Boston University.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ha Jin is a Chinese writer in exile, an assistant professor of English at Emory University in Georgia. He is also one of the most talented poets writing today. Born in mainland China, Ha Jin grew up in a small rural town in Liaoning Province. At at the age of fourteen, he volunteered to serve in the People's Army and was stationed on the northeastern border between China and the Soviet Union. He began studying on his own and, after six years, left the army to attend college. But the Cultural Revolution closed the colleges, so he put in three years as a railroad telegrapher in another remote area. In 1977, when the colleges finally opened, he enrolled at Heilongjiang University in Harbin, where the study of English was assigned to him. He went on to earn an M. A. degree in American literature from Shandong University and then came to the United States, receiving a Ph. D. from Brandeis University in 1992. He also studied fiction writing at Boston University. After the Tiananmen massacre, it would be impossible to write honestly in China," so he decided not to return to his homeland. "Unlike most exiled writers who are already established in their mother tongues, I had no audience in Chinese, so I thought the only way I could become a writer was to write in English. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 70 pages
• Publisher: Hanging Loose Press; 1St Edition edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882413245
• ISBN-13: 978-1882413249
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #647,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Facing Shadows, December 17, 2007

By 

M. Hill "Poetrylover" (Sacramento, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Facing Shadows (Paperback)

In another session of the California Lecture Series in Sacramento, CA, I had the pleasure of listening to Ha Jin in a live interview with Jeffry Calison of Public Radio and was enchanted with the strength, courage, gentleness of this man. Born in mainland China, he immigrated to the United States in his late twenties, earned a Ph.D in English from Brandeis University in 1992. This book of poems runs a scope of emotions and will not fail to move the reader.