Yi Lei published her poem "A Single Woman's Bedroom" in 1987, when cohabitation before marriage was a punishable crime in China. She was met with major critical acclaim-and with outrage-for her frank embrace of women's erotic desire and her unabashed critique of oppressive law. Over the span of her revolutionary career, Yi Lei became one of the most influential figures in contemporary Chinese poetry. Passionate, rigorous, and inimitable, the poems in My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree celebrate the joys of the body, ponder the miracle of compassion, and proclaim an abiding reverence for the natural world. Presented in the original Chinese alongside English translations by Changtai Bi and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith, this collection introduces American readers to a boundless spirit-one "composing an explosion."

One of China's most significant contemporary poets, cotranslated by former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith

About the Author
Yi Lei (1951-2018) received the Zhuang Zhongwen Literature Prize and published eight collections of poems, including A Single Woman's Bedroom, The Love Poems of Yi Lei, and Women's Age. Her work has been translated into five languages.


Book Information
ISBN 9781644450406
Author Yi Lei
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Graywolf Press,U.S.
Publisher Graywolf Press,U.S.
Weight(grams) 230g
Dimensions(mm) 227mm * 153mm * 13mm