Sam Hamill wrote in his final book blurb: “Zhang Er brings us startling ‘burial ground poems’ from Chinese that are striking in their perspective and elegant in style and presentation. They represent a poetic sensibility that is unique and often profound, and I read them with great surprise and gratitude.”

Zhang Er, a poet and opera librettist from Beijing, is the author of many books of poetry in Chinese, 2017’s Closest to You, also Verses on Bird and So Translating Rivers and Cities. She has co-edited Another Kind of Nation: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Poetry and her opera libretti in English include Moon in the Mirror and Fiery Jade: Cai Yan. In this April 2019 interview she discussed her book First Mountain (Zephyr Press), co-translated from her original Chinese with Joseph Donahue.

To hear the original audio of this interview, click here.

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