Background

Ethnicity: Cathy Song was born to a Chinese-American mother and a Korean-American father. Song herself resists classification as an "Asian American" or "Hawaiian" writer, calling herself "a poet who happens to be Asian American".

Cathy Song was born on August 20, 1955 in Wahiawa, Hawaii, United States. She is the second of three children born to Ella Song, a Chinese-American seamstress and Andrew Song, a Korean-American airline pilot.

As Song’s father was a pilot, the family travelled extensively during her youth. In 1962, when she was 7 years old, the family relocated to Honolulu.

Education

Cathy Song showed an early interest in writing and literature and was able to write at a high level in her youth. When she was eleven, Song wrote her first novel. During high school Song shifted her focus to music and began writing songs, as she wanted to be a songwriter like her idol Joan Baez. She also became interested in poetry and continued to write poems after high school.

Song attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where her teacher was the poet critic John Unterecker, who believed that Song's work would prosper once she reached the mainland. He convinced her to transfer to Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she found further encouragement after reading Georgia O’Keeffe’s self-titled studio book. Song would eventually incorporate artwork from this book into her first published book "Picture Bride". After graduating from Wellesley with a Bachelor in English literature in 1977, Song went on to complete a Master of Arts degree at Boston University in 1981.

Career

Song has been associated with the Hawaii literary journal Bamboo Ridge from its early days in 1978 and continues to collaborate with writers from that community.

Her first book of poetry was "Picture Bride" (1983). She followed this book with several poetry compilations: "Squares of Light" (1988), "School Figures" (1994), and "The land of Bliss" (2001).

Cathy Song’s poetry is often directly related to Song’s experiences of being a daughter, sister, and becoming a mother and wife. Song’s poems explore her journey of womanhood with a specific emphasis on her relationship with the human body. Song has elaborated on the exploration and meaning of her body throughout her poetry in many literary devices such as repetition, symbolism, and metaphors. These underlying themes of womanhood are especially present in Cathy Song’s "Picture Bride".

Cultural convergence is also a prominent theme seen throughout Cathy Song’s poetry as well. She writes poetry that reflects both on the heritage of the east and west. Song dives deep into her journey as a modern day woman with Chinese and Korean background, navigating through America, and her experiences along the way.

Besides, in the early fall of 1994, she was invited to travel to Korea and Hong Kong under the United States Information Agency's Arts America program.

Since 1987 Song has lived in Honolulu, Hawaii, combining her writing with teaching creative writing to students at several universities.

Achievements

• Cathy Song is a noted poet, teacher and leader of creative writing workshops through Hawaii’s “Poets in the Schools” program.
  
  She won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition for her first book of poetry "Picture Bride" (1983). Moreover, Yale published her work the following year, proclaiming her a "pioneer among a generation re-examining its heritage".
  
  In 1993, Song won the Hawaii Award for Literature. That same year, the Poetry Society of America awarded Song the Shelley Memorial Award.
  
  In addition, in 1997, Song was one of the recipients of the annual Literature Awards ($20,000), awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
  
  Among Song's other awards and honours were also the Pushcart Prize, Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry magazine, and Elliot Cades Award for Literature.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Cloud Moving Hands

    (These poems, threaded by the teachings of Buddha, examine...)

    2007
  • Picture Bride

    (The winning volume in the 1982 Yale Series of Younger Poe...)

    1983
  • Frameless Windows, Squares of Light

    (Cathy Song's poems are "bouquets to those moments in life...)

    1988
  • The Land Of Bliss

    (Cathy Song’s fourth collection of poetry unveils glimpses...)

    2001
  • School Figures

    (Song, a Yale Series of Younger Poets Award winner in 1982...)

    1994

Views

Quotations: "Our family travels started my writing. I guess I was around nine years old when I decided I wanted to be the family chronicler."

"I’m not there to give the students false praise. It’s not going to do them any good... Sometimes I tell them to rewrite something over and over, and they do, creating a really good poem. You’ve got to be willing to dismantle... to realize that poetry is something made outside of yourself."

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Jessica Greenbaum: "Song is at her best when she wrenches free of her responsibility to family history."

Interests

• music, songwriting

• Music & Bands

  Joan Baez

Connections

While living in Boston, Cathy Song married Douglas Davenport, then a physician-in-training. The two had their first child in 1983, a son in Boston. Two years following their son's birth, they moved to Denver, because of Davenport's medical residency. During their time in Denver they had their second child, a daughter born in 1986. The following year they moved to Hawaii. Song had a third child in 1991, another son.

Father:

Andrew Song

Mother:

Ella Song

Spouse:

Douglas Davenport

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series. Volume 154