Jennifer Wong

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Jennifer Wong

Jennifer Wong is a writer and poet from Hong Kong. [1]

Biography

Wong studied English literature at University College, Oxford University. [2] She worked for the Hong Kong government as an administration officer, and later as a PR executive in the private sector. [3]

She gained an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, [4] and a PhD in creative writing at Oxford Brookes University. She taught poetry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and worked as poet-in-residence at Lingnan University. [5]

She published her first collection of poems, Summer Cicadas in 2006, [5] which focused on her time in England. [6] In 2013 she published her second collection, Goldfish, [7] which focused more on Hong Kong. [7] Her third collection, Letters Home [8] [9] published by Nine Arches Press in the UK in 2020, has been named the Wild Card Choice by the Poetry Book Society in the UK. [10]

In 2014, she received the Hong Kong Young Artist Award (Literary Arts) presented by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. [11] Her work has been featured in Poetry London, [12] Poetry Foundation, [13] Oxford Poetry, Wasafiri, [14] The Scores, [15] Washington Square Review, [16] Tupleo Quarterly, Magma Poetry, The North, World Literature Today, [17] Wildness, [18] Asian Cha, Voice & Verse, Lincoln Review [19] and Finished Creatures. In 2015, she taught creative writing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

She is the author of Home, Identity and Writing Elsewhere [20] published by Bloomsbury in 2023 on the writing identities for Anglophone transnational poets from the contemporary Chinese diaspora. Together with Eddie Tay, she co-edited the new anthology State of Play: Poets of East and Southeast Asian Heritage in Conversation [21] (Outspoken Press, 2023) featuring dialogues between poets of such heritage across continents.

She is a book reviewer and translator, and her work has appeared in Poetry Review, Pathlight, Modern Poetry in Translation, Asian Review of Books and Under the Radar among other publications.

Currently living in the United Kingdom, Wong represented Hong Kong at the Poetry 2012 Cultural Olympiad's Poetry Parnassus. [22] [23] Together with Wasafiri, she co-curated the Poetics of Home poetry festival in 2021. [24] She worked as writer-in-residence with Wasafiri in 2021. She was a visiting fellow for Oxford TORCH in 2022, producing a transnational anthology on the idea of home and personal history. [25] She has taught creative writing at Poetry School, [26] Arvon [27] and City Lit.

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References

  1. Jennifer Wong, UCity Review
  2. Summer Cicadas, South China Morning Post, 15 October 2006
  3. Oxford poet who loves creativity (in Chinese), Hong Kong Economic Times, 2 April 2007, archived from the original on 27 September 2014
  4. Jennifer Wong - Two Poems, World Literature Today, 25 July 2012
  5. 1 2 Kate Kilalea, Agnes Lehoczky and Jennifer Wong at Poetry Parnassus, New Writing, 6 July 2012
  6. Goldfish, by Jennifer Wong, South China Morning Post, 8 September 2013
  7. 1 2 Books, Time Out Hong Kong, 3–16 July 2013, p. 68
  8. Letters Home, by Jennifer Wong, Poetry Review, 2020
  9. Letters Home, by Jennifer Wong, Asian Review of Books, 2020
  10. "Spring 2020". The Poetry Book Society. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
  11. Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2013 Commend Outstanding Artists and Organisations, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, 26 April 2014
  12. "Summer 2022 • Issue 102 – Shop". Poetry London. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  13. Foundation, Poetry (2023-09-04). "Jennifer Wong". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  14. "Houhai by Jennifer Wong". Wasafiri Magazine. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  15. "Jennifer Wong". The Scores. 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  16. "Leng-Shuang". Washington Square Review. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  17. "Two Poems, by Jennifer Wong". World Literature Today. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  18. "Issue No. 17 | wildness". readwildness.com. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  19. "Poems by Jennifer Wong". Mysite. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  20. bloomsbury.com. "Identity, Home and Writing Elsewhere in Contemporary Chinese Diaspora Poetry". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  21. "**PRE-ORDER** State of Play: Poets of East & Southeast Asian Heritage in Conversation, Edited by Eddie Tay & Jennifer Wong". Out-Spoken. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  22. Former AO and local female poet to take part in London Olympics alongside Nobel prizewinner (in Chinese), Apple Daily, 1 April 2012
  23. Gobbling Down Auspicious Chinese Dishes at New Year, Asia Literary Review, archived from the original on 2013-04-10
  24. "Poetics of Home: A Chinese Diaspora Poetry Festival". Wasafiri Magazine. 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  25. "Dr Jennifer Wong". www.torch.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  26. "Jennifer Wong, Author at Poetry School". Poetry School. Retrieved 2023-09-04.
  27. "Jennifer Wong". Arvon. Retrieved 2023-09-04.