Marilyn Chin was born in Hong Kong and raised in Portland, Oregon. She received a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Chinese literature and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Her books have become Asian American classics and are taught in classrooms internationally. Her most recent book is A PORTRAIT OF THE SELF AS NATION: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (W.W. Norton, 2018). Other books include HARD LOVE PROVINCE, RHAPSODY IN PLAIN YELLOW, DWARF BAMBOO, and THE PHOENIX GONE, THE TERRACE EMPTY, and REVENGE OF THE MOONCAKE VIXEN.
She has won numerous awards, including the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement in poetry, the Anisfield Wolf Book Award, the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard, the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, two NEAs, the Stegner Fellowship, the PEN/Josephine Miles Award and others. In 2017, she was honored by the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus and the California Assembly for her activism and excellence in education.
She is featured in anthologies including The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women and The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century Poetry. She has translated poetry by Asian writers, notably Ai Qing and Ho Xuan Huong. Chin is Professor Emerita at San Diego State University and Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
