Though Silence

Christopher Howell lives in Spokane, Washington, where he teaches at Eastern Washington University and edits the biannual Willow Springs. He has published six full-length collections of poems, most recently Memory and Heaven (1997). His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Oregon Arts Commission, the Writer of the Year Award from the Washington State Library Associstion, the Helen Bullis Prize, the Vachel Lindsay Award, and the Book Project Award from the King County Arts Commission.

Each of us early in life has an imaginary friend, one we make up, that no religion has invented first. It is a pleasure, not a strain, to believe in Christopher Howell's Ling Wei---this shared friend of ours. We won't get tired of listening to his life and insights, the round and wavy way he speaks the truth. Ling Wei and his creator are powerful poets." - Sandra McPherson