ravel

About the Author

Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong is a poet and software developer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has lived in nine states and two continents. Writing is a way for her to traverse seen and unseen geographies. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, some Japanese, English, ruby, and javascript. Kwong's poetry has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. Among her projects is a digital anthology, The Taste of Each, curated around references to oranges and bananas in various literary and artistic works across the world. Kwong's first poetry collection, ravel, spans wide and invites readers to interrogate boundaries. It has been listed as a finalist for the Many Voices Project by New Rivers Press, and the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. The digital index page for ravel can be accessed at www.bonniekwong.info/ravel

Blurbs

In this "multilingual" collection of poems, Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong writes of the subtext of terror in every "civilized good." Hidden histories, suffering, and injustice are calmly dissected by this poet with clear eyes and straight diction - words that at once enlighten, empower, and untangle.

Koon Woon, author, Water Chasing Water, 2014 American Book Award winner.

Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong is a poet who "traffics in songs unsung". There is a musicality to her lines and a pervasive intelligence behind each piece. Sometimes she permits the rational, scientific part of her mind dominate but more often her poems are sensual, delicate yet fierce, dynamic, and probing. Read this book and savor its flame!

Susan Terris, Ghost of Yesterday, New & Selected Poems

In ravel, Bonnie Kwong weaves from the disparate--from the quiet intimacies of love to the cruel depredations of history - an elegant fabric. Kwong's poems are spare, restrained, yet at the same time made rich by her knowledge of multiple languages and cultures. "How much sweetness do we need to swallow the bitter?" asks one speaker.

Leslie McGrath, author, Out From the Pleiades