Renowned Chinese American author Maxine Hong Kingston read sections from an unpublished poem at the Stanford Humanities Center last night, providing her audience with what she called a “world premiere” preview to her next major work, a 201-page poem.
Entitled “I Love a Broad Margin to My Life,” Kingston described her poem as “the culmination of my life’s work.” She said it was her attempt to answer all the unanswered questions in her previous works, such as the name of No-Name Woman in “Woman Warrior,” and what happened to the brother in “China Men” after coming home from war with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“He lies down on the couch and doesn’t get up,” Kingston said. “Does he ever get up? Do we ever really come home from war?”
Kingston also explained her decision to write poetry instead of prose. So far, Kingston has published three award-winning novels and several works of non-fiction, but has never published poetry.
“I’ve tried the big novel,” she said. “What if poetry can bring me a new world, can give me other answers? Who knows what transcendental power poetry may bring?”
The excerpts that Kingston read displayed a deep self-consciousness, covering a broad range of experiences and journeys both physical and emotional. Near the beginning of the poem she asks: “Am I pretty at 65? What does old look like?”
The poem also describes her experience in an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. on International Women’s Day of 2003. At the protest, she was arrested for refusing to leave the street, and shared a jail cell with author Alice Walker.
When writing the end of the poem, Kingston said she was contemplating the deaths of various friends, and began to meditate on her own “existential choice.” She came up with seven reasons to live, which are written into the poem. At the end, however, she decides to put away her pen, saying, “I shall become a reader of the world, not a writer of it.”
After the event, students and faculty lined up for a book signing, many wishing that she had continued reading.
“She’s such a powerful speaker,” said audience member Lily Xu ’12. “When you are listening to her, you get caught up . . . you stop thinking about your own life.”
Earlier Tuesday morning, Kingston also attended the seminar class FEMST 188N: Imagining Women. She met with students who have read her most recent novel, “The Fifth Book of Peace,” a four-part meditation on war and peace.
“When she came into the room, the air changed,” said audience and class member M.J. Ma ’12. “She is so graceful and stately.”
Kingston discussed with her audience the challenge of writing biographies instead of fiction, and shared with the students her experience of losing the manuscript to the “Fourth Book of Peace” to the Oakland wildfires of 1991.
Besides writing, Kingston has also had a long teaching career, and currently is an professor emeritus at UC-Berkeley.
When asked what advice she gives to aspiring student writers, Kingston smiled broadly and said, “Just write. Write something every day, even if it’s only one word. Let it be the most beautiful word of the day.”