Jane Wong is an American poet and professor at

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington, United States. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, s ...

. She is the author of the full-length poetry collections ''Overpour'' and ''How Not to Be Afraid of Everything'' and has been published in Best American Poetry 2015 and Best New Poets 2012. Wong grew up in

Tinton Falls, New Jersey Tinton Falls is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located within the heart of the Jersey Shore region, the borough is a commercial hub of Central Jersey (it is the site of the Jersey Shore Premium Outlets and differ ...

, where her parents owned a Chinese restaurant, and where Jane remembers much of her childhood. In 2023, she released her memoir ''Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City''. She currently resides in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

Background

Wong received her B.A. in English from

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

, her MFA in Poetry from the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...

, and her Ph.D. in English from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Awards and honors

*2022 Longlisted for the PEN/Voelcker Award *2016 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from The

American Poetry Review ''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizab ...

*2015

Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the genera ...

*2012 Best New Poets *

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by ''The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...

Fellowship *

Kundiman Kundiman is a genre of traditional Filipino ballads, predominantly with romantic themes. The lyrics of the kundiman are written in Tagalog. The melody is characterized by a smooth, flowing and gentle rhythm with dramatic intervals. Kundima ...

Fellowship *2007-2008

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Scholarship In 2016, Wong was featured among ten artists to mark the year to come, together with painter

Ari Glass Ari Glass (born 1989) is an American painter, designer and musician. Biography Glass grew up in the Rainier Valley, Seattle. Glass attended art classes at Franklin High School and briefly studied graphic design at Seattle Central College, b ...

, dancer David Rue, and others.

Works

*''Kudzu Does Not Stop'', United States : Organic Weapon Arts, 2012. , *''Overpour'', Notre Dame, Indiana : Action Books, 2016. , *''How Not to Be Afraid of Everything'', Alice James Books, 2021. *''Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City'', Portland, Oregon: Tin House, 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Jane Living people American women writers American poets of Asian descent Bard College alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Writers from Seattle Educators from Seattle People from Tinton Falls, New Jersey University of Washington alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women Memoirists from New Jersey Memoirists from Washington (state) Writers from Monmouth County, New Jersey