Poet: Bio of Nellie Wong

On September 12 1934, Nellie Wong was born in Oakland, California to Chinese immigrants. During World War II, the internment of her Japanese American neighbors left a huge impact in her life. It brought to her attention the issues of racism and the concerns of Asian Americans. In her mid-30’s, Nellie began studying creative writing at San Francisco State University. She was inspired by her feminist classmate who encouraged her to write ad publish her poetry. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nellie co-founded the Asian American feminist literary and performance group “Unbound Feet”. She traveled to China on the first U.S. Women Writers Tour and was also a speaker for many national and regional conferences. She has taught Women’s studies at the University of Minnesota and poetry writing at Mills College in Oakland, California. Now, she is currently residing in San Francisco, California.

I wasn't able to get a book of her poetries, but I was able to find a couple of her pieces online that I can work with. I'm excited to read her work and hear what she has to say about being a female Asian American living in California.

I decided to pick Nellie Wong as my poet because in some ways she reminds me of myself so i figured perhaps I would be able to relate to some of her writings. As I was reading her poems, one of her poems was about her going into a Chinese Bakery and encountering a white man speaking Cantonese. The way she responded to him is exactly how I would have reacted. Her poems also reminded me of the book The Dim Sum of All Things by Kim Wong Keltner which I really enjoyed reading so I figured I would enjoy Nellie’s writing too. Another reason I picked her was because she went to SFSU which I found really surprising. It's not everyday where you find out you went to the same school as a writer or any other famous person.