Tan Lin is an American poet, writer, filmmaker, and educator. He is most notably recognized for his work in "ambient" literature, a style that draws on and samples source material from popular culture. He is the author of over 13 books, including "Heath Course Pak" (2012), "Bib. Rev. Ed., Insomnia and the Aunt" (2011), and "7 Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking" (2010), among others.
Background
Tan Anthony Lin was born on April 24, 1957 Seattle, Washington, United States. His parents were Chinese-American immigrants born in Shanghai, China, and Beijing, China. They migrated to the United States from China, his father in 1948 and his mother in 1949.
His father, Henry Huan Lin was a ceramist and former dean of the Ohio University College of Fine Arts. His mother, Julia Chang Lin, born in Shanghai, was a poet and taught literature at Ohio University. Tan Lin is the nephew of Lin Huiyin, who is said to be the first female architect in China. Lin Chang-min, a Hanlin of the Qing dynasty, the emperor's teacher, was the father of Lin Huiyin and great-grandfather of Tan.
The Lin family moved to Athens, Ohio, and in 1959, Tan's sister, Maya Ying Lin, was born. She is an American designer and artist who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Education
Tan Lin received a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College in 1979, a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1981. He also earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1995.
Career
Tan Lin has been a professor of English at the University of Virginia, and a visiting poet-in-residence at the California Institute of the Arts.
He currently serves as an associate professor of English and creative writing at New Jersey City University.
In addition, Tan Lin is the author of over 13 books, including "Heath Course Pak" (2012), "Bib. Rev. Ed., Insomnia and the Aunt" (2011), "7 Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking" (2010), "Plagiarism/Outsource" (2009), "Ambience is a Novel with a Logo" (2007), "BlipSoak01" (2003), and "Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe" (2000).
His work has appeared in numerous journals including Conjunctions, Artforum, Criticism, boundary2, Cabinet, the New York Times Book Review, Art in America, and Purple.
Moreover, his video, theatrical, and LCD work have been shown at Artists Space, the Marianne Boesky Gallery, the Yale Art Museum, Sophienholm Museum (Copenhagen), Ontological Hysterical Theatre, as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Soundcheck Series, and as a solo show at Treize Gallery in Paris.
Views
Tan Lin's principal aim is to produce "ambient" literature; really a mode of literature rather than a recognizable genre that would be permeable and could disable the rigid categorization of work into such categories as poetry, fiction, and literary criticism/poetics.
Membership
Tan Lin has been a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
