Li-Young Lee is one of the leading poetic voices of the Chinese diaspora writing in America. Lee was born August 19, 1957, in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Richard K. Y. Lee and Joice Yuan Jiaying, the granddaughter of China's provisional president, Yuan Shikai, elected in 1912 during the country's transition from monarchy to republic. Before moving to Indonesia, Lee's father was China communist leader Mao Zedong's personal physician. In 1959, the Lees left Indonesia after President Sukarno, for whom Lee's father had been a medical advisor, began openly persecuting the country's Chinese population. After wandering through the Far East for five years, the family immigrated to the United States, settling in Pennsylvania. Lee attended Kiski Area High School in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania; the Universities of Pittsburgh (1975-1979) and Arizona (1979-1980); and the State University of New York at Brockport (1980-1981). With publication of his first collection of poems, Rose, in 1986, Lee garnered...