Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
March 25–26, 2019
- Reading: Streaming video, MP3 audio
- Discussion: Streaming video, MP3 audio
Bio
Poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, born 1947 in Beijing, is known for her poems' long, deceptively
prose-like line, which she uses to navigate through many interconnected topics, including the
natural world and the inner realm of human thought and perception.
Berssenbrugge is the author of The Heat Bird (1983), winner
of the American Book Award; Empathy (1989), winner of the
PEN West Award; Sphericity (1993); Endocrinology (1997), a collaboration with the artist Kiki Smith;
Four Year Old Girl (1998), winner of the Western States
Book Award; Nest (2003); I Love Artists:
New and Selected Poems (2006); and Hello, the Roses
(2013). She received a BA from Reed College and an MFA from Columbia University.
Berssenbrugge has received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and
honors from the Western States Art Foundation and the Asian American Writers Workshop,
and has taught at both the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM and in New York
City. She resides in New Mexico.