Description
Translated by Jennifer Shyue. The title of BI-REY-NATO, Julia Wong Kcomt's sixth poetry collection, is a homonym for "virreinato" or "viceroyalty," but can also be broken down into its component words: "bi" (bi/two), "rey" (king), and "nato" (born). Likewise, the poems in this chapbook play with binaries: in power, love, language, country, identity. The salt in the air of seaside Lima, the setting of the first section, condenses into the salt that trails through the second section, set mostly in Argentina.
Poetry.
Author Bio
Julia Wong Kcomt was born into a tusán (Chinese Peruvian) family in Chepén, Peru, in 1965. She traveled from an early age, and her perceptions of country borders, different cultures, and diversity in ethnicity and religion became a strong motivation to write. She is the author of 17 volumes of poetry, including Un salmVn ciego (Borrador Editores) and 18 poemas de fake love para Keanu Reeves (Cascada de Palabras); five books of fiction; and two collections of hybrid prose. She currently lives between Lima and Lisbon.
Author City: LIMA PER
Jennifer Shyue is a translator focusing on contemporary Cuban and Asian-Peruvian writers. Her work has been supported by grants from Fulbright, Princeton University, and the University of Iowa and has appeared in The Arkansas International, New England Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and elsewhere.
Author City: USA