“To dream in oceans of stories, listening to echoes from rituals ancient and new.”
Poet NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with a specially curated book of poetry, exploring themes of family, art, activism and aging.
Marking her 50th anniversary as a published poet, Nothing Like Freedom is Nellie Wong’s fifth collection of poetry, following Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012), Stolen Moments (1997), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), and Dreams in Harrison Railroad Park (1977).
About the Author
Nellie Wong has published four books: Dreams in Harrison Railroad Park, The Death of Long Steam Lady, Stolen Moments, and Breakfast Lunch Dinner. Her poems and essays appear in numerous journals and anthologies, including This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color, and excerpts from two poems have been permanently installed at public sites at the San Francisco Municipal Railway. A building at Oakland High School is named after her, she is co-featured in the documentary film, Mitsuye and Nellie Asian American Poets, and a poem of hers was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She traveled to China in the First American Women Writers Tour with Alice Walker, Tillie Olsen, and Paule Marshall, among others. She taught poetry writing at Mills College and women’s studies at the University of Minnesota, and is the recipient of the 2022 PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award.
For additional information about the author, please visit nelliewong@ddns.net
“One of Wong’s greatest gifts to us has been her unapologetic embrace of poetry as a political act. And while these political commitments may have caused some literary critics to overlook her in the past, I think that it’s fair to say that her time has come around again, with younger poets returning to the kind of political engagement that Wong and other women of color pioneered in the 1970s.”
— Timothy Yu, Martha Meier Renk-Bascom Professor of Poetry and professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“These poems are vivid postcards that bring you right there as if standing over Nellie’s shoulder as she writes/remembers/relives. They are moving slices of life that we get to partake of and in, voyeurs sopping up all the minute, richly, savoring details.”
Opal Palmer Adisa
Author of The Storyteller’s Return
“For the last fifty years, Nellie Wong’s poetry has been sounding clarion calls of truth and represents an essential voice in American literature. From her earliest books, through to the newest work, Wong is lyrical, tender, political, and generous. Her world-view is not only intimate and local to working class Asian American communities in California, but simultaneously universal, radical, and transformative. This gathering of poems from across decades offers readers a chance to discover or rediscover this vital and important poet.”
Kazim Ali
Author of The Voice of Sheila Chandra
“Full disclosure: I’ve been a fan of Nellie Wong for many years. Nothing Like Freedom only reinforces my love of her work. In “Hoisan American Pantoum for Li Hong,” the reader is offered a taste, smells, and a soundtrack. These poems are the work of a steady hand, so many wonderful lines that take you to unexpected places. I will leave them for you to discover, this collection is a treasure.”
Kim Shuck
7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco Emerita
Author of Pick a Garnet to Sleep In
Nothing Like Freedom: Table of Contents
Support Independent Local Bookstores.
Nothing Like Freedom can be purchased at the following locations:
Bird and Beckett Books and Records
653 Chenery Street, San Francisco, CA https://birdbeckett.com/
FSP at New Valencia Hall
747 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA https://socialism.com/san-francisco/
Freedom Socialist Bookstore
1539 E. 94th Place, Los Angeles, CA https://socialism.com/los-angeles/
Clara’s Books at New Freeway Hall
5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA https://socialism.com/seattle/
For special purchase orders, author appearances and media inquiries,
please contact Andi Wong at hoonghoonglooklook@gmail.com.