John Yau (born June 5, 1950) is an American poet and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

who lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from

Brooklyn College , mottoeng = Nothing without great effort , established = , parent = CUNY , type = Public university , endowment = $98.0 million (2019) , budget = $123.96 m ...

in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction, and art criticism.

Life and career

According to Matthew Rohrer's profile on Yau from '' Poets & Writers Magazine'', Yau's parents settled in Boston after emigrating from China in 1949. His father was a bookkeeper. As a child Yau was friends with the son of the Chinese-born abstract painter John Way. By the late 1960s Yau was exposed to, "a lot of anti-war poetry readings in Boston ndso I'd heard Robert Bly, Denise Levertov, Galway Kinnell, people like that. I don't know – Robert Kelly (poet) just seemed a different kind of poet. Mysterious, in a way. He was interested in the occult, in gnosticism and abstract art – things that had a particular appeal to me." According to Rohrer, Yau's decision to attend Bard College was motivated by his admiration of Kelly. Yau's most recent books are "Egyptian Sonnets" (Rain Taxi, 2012), ''Exhibits'' (Letter Machine Editions, 2010), ''A Thing Among Things: The Art of Jasper Johns'' ( Distributed Art Publishers, 2009), and ''The Passionate Spectator: Essays on Art and Poetry'' (University of Michigan Press, 2006). His collections of poetry include ''Paradiso Diaspora'' (Penguin, 2006), ''Ing Grish'', with Paintings by Thomas Nozkowski (Saturnalia, 2005),''Borrowed Love Poems'' (Penguin, 2002), ''Forbidden Entries'' (Black Sparrow, 1996), ''Berlin Diptychon'' with Photographs by Bill Barrette (Timken, 1995), ''Edificio Sayonara'' (Black Sparrow, 1992),''Corpse and Mirror'' (Holt & Rinehardt, 1983), a National Poetry Series book selected by John Ashbery, and ''Broken Off by The Music'' (Burning Deck, 1981). Artists' books include projects with Squeak Carnwath, Richard Tuttle, Norbert Prangenberg, Hanns Schimannsky, Archie Rand, Norman Bluhm, Pat Steir, Suzanne McClelland, Robert Therrien, Leiko Ikemura, and Jürgen Partenheimer (a.o.), his books of art criticism include ''The United States of Jasper Johns'' (1996) and ''In the Realm of Appearances: The Art of

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

'' (1993). He has also edited ''Fetish ''(1998), a fiction anthology. Yau was the Arts editor of '' The Brooklyn Rail'', from 2007–2011, but left to edit an online magazine, Hyperallergic Weekend. He also runs a small press
Black Square Editions
which publishes translations, poetry, and fiction. Yau currently teaches art history and criticism at Mason Gross School of the Arts,

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. In 2021, Yau curated ''Three Unseen Professors'', which gathered the works of three Asian-American sculptors at Tim Kim Gallery in New York, all of whom taught in the city's most prestigious institutions, yet remained mostly unacknowledged. The exhibition brought together sculptures by Leo Amino, Minoru Niizuma, and John Pai, all of whom worked within their own tradition, while very much belonging to the American tradition. 'They were between two cultures or in one that collapsed together different beliefs. That's what I am trying to call attention to.' Yau tells ''Ocula Magazine'' in a 2021 interview.

Awards

Yau has received awards and grants from Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation, the Academy of American Poets (Lavan Award), The American Poetry Review (Jerome Shestack Award), the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

, the General Electric Foundation, the

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowships to professionals who have demonstrated exceptional ...

, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award (2002). In 2018, Yau was named a recipient of the

Jackson Poetry Prize Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'', ...

Selected bibliography

*1983 – Corpse and Mirror (Poems) *1989 – Radiant Silhouette: Selected Writing 1974–1988 (Poems and prose) *1992 – Edificio Sayonara (Poems) *1993 – In the Realm of Appearances: The Art of

(Critique) *1995 – Berlin Diptychon (Poems) *1995 – Hawaiian Cowboys (Short stories) *1996 – Forbidden Entries (Poems) *1996 – The United States of Jasper Johns (Critique) *1998 – Fetish (Editor) *1998 – My Symptoms (Short Stories) *1999 – In Company: Robert Creeley's Collaborations (Essay) *2002 – Borrowed Love Poems (Poems) *2005 – Ing Grish *2006 – Paradiso Diaspora *2006 – "andalusia" Authors: John Yau (Poems),

Leiko Ikemura is a Japanese-Swiss painter and sculptor. Biography Leiko Ikemura studied at Osaka University from 1970–1972. She then left Japan to study in Spain from 1973 to 1978 at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Granada and Seville. In 1979, Ikemura ...

, Verlag: Weidle Verlag, *2008 – A Thing Among Things: The Art of Jasper Johns, Distributed Art Publishers, *2010 – Exhibits (Poem) *2012 – Further Adventures in Monochrome (

Copper Canyon Press Copper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, founded in 1972 specializing exclusively in the publication of poetry. It is located in Port Townsend, Washington. Copper Canyon Press publishes new collections of poetry by both ...

) (Poetry) *2018 – Bijoux in the Dark ( Letter Machine Editions) (Poetry)

Family History

John Yau is descendant of the Zhang family of Nanxun, China, as described in Nelson and Laurence Chang's book "The Zhangs of Nanxun" (2010). Yau's maternal grandfather, the scholar Zhang Naiyan (1894–1958) had a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Geneva. In 1927, at the age of 33, he became the first President of the University at Nanjing, and in 1933 was appointed China's Ambassador to Belgium. As indicated on the family tree in the Chang and Chang book, Zhang Naiyan's father the educator Zhang Bianqun (1875–1922) was the elder brother of Zhang Jing Jiang (Zhang Renjie) (1877–1950), who are in the East Branch of the family. The South Branch of the Zhang family includes Zhang Shiming (1871–1928), the art scholar Zhang Congyu (1914–1963), and writer Nelson Chang (1923–) and his son Laurence Chang (1965–).

References

External links

John Yau, Giant WallJohn Yau Exhibit at The Academy of American Poets"Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project John Yau participated inJohn Yau in Conversation with Phong Bui (July/August 2009)The Yau Identity
by Laura Mullen {{DEFAULTSORT:Yau, John American poets American writers of Chinese descent Living people 1950 births Bard College alumni American art critics Brooklyn College alumni 20th-century American poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers Poets from Massachusetts People from Lynn, Massachusetts 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Surrealist poets