John Yau
John Yau ( born June 5, 1950 in Lynn / Massachusetts ) is an American poet, essayist, prose writer and art critic.
Life and work
John Yau's father, Arthur Lau, was an American with half of Chinese descent, who spent several years in China, where he also met John's mother, Jane Chang, who came from a prominent family in Shanghai. Shortly before the birth of her son fled Yau's parents from Shanghai. Although Chinese were talking, they refused to teach this to their children, so Yau today does not speak Chinese.
After attending Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson/New York ( until 1972 ) Yau studied with John Ashbery at Brooklyn College in New York City ( until 1978 ). He has written numerous books of poetry and two volumes of published reviews, published an anthology of short stories, a retrospective of the work of painter and illustrator Edward Moses (1996 ) organized and written an extensive essay on the poetry and poetics of Robert Creeley. He has taught at numerous colleges and universities, including at Brown University and at the University of California, Berkeley.
John Yau lives in Manhattan and currently teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art
Prices
Among the institutions that have John Yau honored with awards and scholarships, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Poetry Review, the Academy of American Poets, the General Electric Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts.