Bei Dao Translated by Jeffrey Yang

Bei Dao (the pseudonym means `north island’) was born in Beijing in 1949. Educated into the beliefs of Communist China, his subsequent disaffection found its voice in poetry, for which he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize on several occasions Since 1989 he has lived first in Europe, then in the USA, and finally Hong Kong, where he teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His poetry in English translation includes The August Sleepwalker (1988), Old Snow (1992), Forms of Distance (1994), Landscape Over Zero (1998) and Unlock (2006). He has also published several collections of essays, including Midnight’s Gate (2007).