This Fierce Geography (1999) by Alex Kuo

"I happen to believe that there are a lot of good poets around at present, but a poet like Alex Kuo, who possesses a highly developed moral sense and a bitter honesty, is rare at any time, and especially in this time. We need him." — Carolyn Kizer

This chapbook of poems reflects on the memory of war in China from the perspective of a young boy; poems by a reflective man returning to Beijing decades later.

Alexander Kuo is an American teacher, poet, fiction writer, and essayist. He was Professor of English at Washington State University, and retired in 2012. He is the author of several collections of poetry and fiction, as well as the novel, Chinese Opera (Hong Kong: Asia 2000). He was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to China, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for fiction in 1991. He has taught in numerous academic institutions in China, including Beijing and Changchun universities. In 2002 he won an American Book Award for his Lipstick and Other Stories of the Before Columbus Foundation.