Poetry. "Carol [Lem] displays an affection for family, poets, students, and her dead lover that is vivid, honest, and memorable. She has created a book whose spirit this writer can borrow from, learn from. The music of her shakuhachi - the wind instrument she pitches in private - resounds on each page. When Carol Lem plays that ancient flute, we have no choice but to listen, entranced"- Gary Soto. "'How do I make my own life interesting and compelling to strangers?' is a question that should face every autobiographical poet. Carol Lem has managed to find an answer which is made up of her sharp powers of observation and her awareness of the poetic traditions that inform her poems"- Billy Collins.

Author City: SIERRA MADRE, CA USA

Carol Lem, who lives in Sierra Madre, California and teaches creative writing and literature at East Los Angeles College, is the author of Searchings, Grassroots, Don't Ask Why, The Hermit, The Hermit's Journey: Tarot Poems for Meditation, Moe (Remembrance), SHADOW OF THE PLUM, and GATHERING THE PIECES. A reading of selected poems from SHADOW OF THE PLUM may be heard on her CD, Shadow of the Bamboo, with music by Masakazu Yoshizawa.