Xue Di
Flames
translated by Wang Ping, Iona Crook
& Keith Waldrop
32 pages, paper
ISBN 0-945926-43-X
$5.00

This book introduced American reader to experimental Chinese poet & dissident, Xue Di. Each of the 16 poems is informed by a different painting by Vincent Van Gogh--Xue Di does not describe the paintings' content, but rather the emotional truth he uncovers. These poems are charged with hope & outrage at the human condition, where "Joy's radiance / turns your whole body to the dark."

Xue Di is author of two books of poetry in China. He fled from China after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, & entered the Freedon to Write Program at Brown University. His Heart Into Soil, was recently published by Lost Roads / Burning Deck.