My Father's Martial Art: Poems

Stephen Shu-Ning Liu is a unique figure in contemporary letters--a native of China, from a family of scholars, who left his country as a young man and now writes in English, a language he learned only after emigrating. His poetry is compelling and intriguing, as hybrid as his life's experiences, strongly informed by the ancient traditions and aesthetics of his homeland, but equally shaped by the mobility and rootlessness of modern urban America. The poems reflect the delicate vision of Chinese art--its attention to the natural world and the single telling detail that can evoke an entire universe--as well as a sly humor and gentle wistfulness that are entirely the author's own, and they range in subject matter from stories of his home and family in China to the surreal neon world of contemporary Las Vegas.