is a primer of modern Chinese life, constructing a complex philosophical vision from swatches of daily events and observations. As Yu Jian has written about his own work: It is possible to see eternityto see everythingin a teacup or a sweet wrapper. Everything in the world is poetry., born in 1954 in Kunming, China, is a poet, author, and documentary film director. He began writing poetry in the early 1970s, influenced both by classical Chinese poetry and modern Western writers such as Walt Whitman. Yu Jian is a major figure among the "Third Generation Poets who came after the Misty Poetry movement of the early 1980s.s books include two collections of poetry, and , and the cultural study . Her novel was winner of the 2008 Minnesota Book Award in the category of Novel & Short Story and the 2007 Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies in the category of Poetry/Prose.s translations include Blaise Cendrars' , Guillaume Apollinaire's , and, with Bill Zavatsky, Valery Larbaud's . A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Padgett was named officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. In 2009 he received the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.