Nguyen Chi Thien was born in Hanoi, Vietnam, and struggled for decades to be an honest poet in a totalitarian state. He finally settled in Santa Ana, California, where he died this week at the age of 73. The New York Times tells his stirring story.
A Vietnamese/American bilingual edition of his Flowers from Hell
World BEYOND War: A New Podcast
Lost Music: Exploring Literary Opera 
Haiku. What is it about these small poems that make people all over the world want to read and write them? Nick Virgilio, one of America’s first major haiku poets, once said in an interview that he wrote haiku “to get in touch with the real.” And the Haiku Society of America has called haiku …
This is the last of five blog posts inspired by the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. As I struggle to write this one today, I’m forced to admit two things that you’ll very rarely ever hear me say. First, I feel humbled. Second, I am at a loss for words. At 3 pm …
(Today is the 21st birthday of Literary Kicks. I’m making it my new habit to celebrate these birthdays with memories from friends of the site, so here’s Tim K. Gallaher remembering way back when. Tim is a former member of the 1970s San Francisco punk rock band Church Police who later became a biochemist at …
I went to the climate march in New York City last week ...
I'm reading Diane di Prima's "Revolutionary Letters" this morning. The great Beat poet died this weekend.
2 Responses
a vital voice/poet and story
a vital voice/poet and story of survival in flesh, spirit and word.
those interested in vietnamese american literature may want
to reference an important first-of-its-kind anthol recently published:
‘this is all i choose to tell’
(history and hybridity in vietnamese american literature)
by isabelle thuy pelaud
2011 temple university
That is a great and inspiring
That is a great and inspiring story. I can barely remember a few lines at a time…and this guy memorized entire collections! I noticed since his death the price of his book went from $80 to $650+.