Marilyn Chin is the author of three award-winning books of poems, Rhapsody in Plain Yellow (Norton, 2002), The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty (Milkweed Editions, 1994), and Dwarf Bamboo (Greenfield Review Press, 1987). Her books are considered Asian American classics and are taught in...

When God tells Lot to flee Soddam and Gomorrah, he cautions him not to look back. Lot's wife cannot resist the temptation and, as they rush from the great fire storm erupting behind them, she does look back and is immediately turned into...

In the following essay, Gery maintains that Chin finds her own voice, and transcends the constraints confronted by women writers of color, through “articulate emptinesses” and “imaginative reconstruction of the diverse resources she inherits.”

In the following essay, Slowik examines the ways in which Chin and other Asian-American poets address their need to examine their cultural roots while continuing to assimilate into their new culture.

In the following essay, McCormick places Chin's poems that examine the poet's identity in the company of feminist theory that seeks to claim both a history and a language for women of color.