Robert Hammond Dorsett & Neal Grace - Book Passage Poetry Night

Stagnant Water & Other Poems ($18.99) is a new translation by poet Robert Hammond Dorsett of Wen Yiduo’s landmark second collection. For many, this volume will serve as an introduction to Wen’s influential work, and his role as a political critic of the Nationalists in pre-Communist China. For many years, Wen’s artistic accomplishments were obscured by the circumstances of his death: Wen was assassinated in 1946, most  likely by the Nationalists after giving an impassioned speech denouncing the Guomindang government.  His work was banned in Taiwan until 1987, while Mao and the People’s Republic of China regarded Wen as a patriot.

Neal Grace's newest work, Sacred Life: Mystical Verses ($15.00), is a passport for you to leave behind the mechanized and sometimes sterile world of contemporary existence, entering a lush, vibrant garden to explore a magical place teeming with beauty and mystery. This is a book to savor slowly as if eating a delectable, exotic fruit whose  nourishment lingers long after it has been ingested.

Robert Dorsett studied Chinese at the Yale-in-China Program at the Chinese University in Hong Kong. He received an M.D. degree from the State University of New York and completed his training in pediatrics at Cornell. He also has an M.F.A. degree from New York University. With David Pollard, he translated the memoirs of Gao Ertai, In Search of My Homeland: A Memoir of a Chinese Labor Camp. He has also published his own poetry in The Literary Review, The Kenyon Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. This is his second book of translations.

Neal Grace grew up in Massachusetts and later traveled around the world. His life has been synonymous with adventure and discovery. Loving nature, art, music and theater, Grace has used these facets of life to form a powerful, deep and passionate philosophy how to live authentically. He lives with his wonderful wife Jacky in San Rafael.

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