Garrett Hongo

How do you think being an immigrant shapes someone’s life experiences? What about being the child of an immigrant? The Japanese American poet, writer, editor, and professor Garrett Hongo is a Yonsei, or a fourth-generation Japanese American. Hongo’s poems and books focus on Asian American history and experiences.

Fig. 1 - While the American state’s name is Hawaii, Hawaiʻi is one of the islands that make up Hawaii.

Garrett Hongo: Biography

Garrett Kaoru Hongo was born in 1951 in Volcano, Hawaiʻi. He grew up in O‘ahu. He is a fourth-generation Japanese American, also known as a Yonsei.

Garrett Hongo’s father worked as an electrician and his mother worked as a personnel analyst. He had a middle-class upbringing on the North Shore of O‘ahu and Los Angeles, California. Hongo's poetry is greatly inspired by the places of his childhood, as well as his Japanese heritage and immigrant experiences.

Fig. 2 - Garrett Hongo moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles when he was six.

Hongo received his BA from Pomona College in Claremont, California. The poet received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the University of California at Irvine. While completing his master’s degree, Hongo closely studied poets such as C.K. Williams, Howard Moss, and Charles Wright.

Hongo later moved to the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle, he founded a theater group called the Asian Exclusion Act.

Garrett Hongo began publishing poetry collections in the early 1980s and has continued publishing significant works in poetry and nonfiction writing since. In 1982 he published his first poetry collection Yellow Light, followed by The River of Heaven in 1988. The River of Heaven won the Lamont Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

The poet has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Watson Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Garrett Hongo is currently a distinguished creative writing professor at the University of Oregon. Hongo directed the University of Oregon’s Program in Creative Writing from 1989 until 1993. The poet lives with his wife and children in Eugene, Oregon.

Garrett Hongo's most recent books include the poetry book Coral Road: Poems (2011) and a collection of essays about literary traditions and Asian American histories called The Mirror Diary (2017).

Garrett Hongo: Books

Garrett Hongo has written several poetry collections and a few nonfiction books. In addition, he has edited significant anthologies of Asian American writing.

Garrett Hongo: Poetry Collections

Garrett Hongo’s poetry collections include:

• Yellow Light: Garrett Hongo's first poetry collection depicts the everyday lives of family members and neighbors. The poet explores the idea of identity and how one's setting impacts their life. The title poem "Yellow Light" tells the story of a tired, working-class woman traveling from the bus stop to her apartment in Los Angeles. The poet emphasizes the mixture of ethnicities and the congestion of the city from a personal perspective.

• The River of Heaven: Garrett Hongo's second poetry book is his most acclaimed. It won the 1987 Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In The River of Heaven Hongo turns mundane human experiences into compelling poetry. He draws upon his Japanese ancestry and Hawaiian and Californian upbringing to tie together the streets of Los Angeles, the volcanoes of Hawaii, and feelings of personal grief.

• Coral Road: Poems: Garrett Hongo's third poetry collection is an homage to his Japanese American ancestors and the beautiful, powerful Hawaiian landscape that shaped their lives. The poet tells the story of his ancestors' struggles and journeys as immigrants to O‘ahu from southern Japan. He explores the ideas of temporality and impermanence as his great grandparents have to brave the wilderness, working as contract laborers and traveling from one plantation to the next.

Fig. 3 - Hongo's ancestors came to Hawaii to work on plantations.

Garrett Hongo: Nonfiction Books

Garett Hongo’s nonfiction books are:

• Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai’i (1995)—In his memoir, Hongo connects with his ancestors by painting the past Hawaii and California that they experienced. Hongo relies on imagery of the natural landscapes, rain forests, and volcanoes he grew around to tell his story. Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai’i won the Oregon Book Award in nonfiction.

• The Mirror Diary: Selected Essays (2017)—The Mirror Diary is a collection of essays that reflect the poet's deep engagement with politics, literary tradition, cultural heritage, and history. He writes about cultural inheritance from diverse literary predecessors, including poets from the T'ang Dynasty in China and American Poets such as Walt Whitman and Charles Olsen. The poet also discusses racial politics and the effects of Japanese American internment during the Second World War.

Garrett Hongo: Edited Books

Hongo has edited many anthologies that focus on Asian American experiences including:

• The Open Boat: Poems from Asian America (1993: This book is a collection of poetry by over 30 contemporary Asian American poets including Maxine Hong Kingston, David Mura, Marilyn Chin, and John You.

• Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays, and Memoir by Wakako Yamauchi (1994): This book is a collection of short stories, memoirs, and plays by a second-generation Japanese American writer.

• Under Western Eyes: Personal Essays from Asian America (1995): This book features significant writers including Amy Tan and Chang‐rae Lee. The writers express their experiences of racism, generational differences, and education as Asian Americans.

Garrett Hongo: Poems

Some poems by Garrett Hongo include:

• "The Legend" (1988): This narrative poem is the final poem in Garrett Hongo's acclaimed poetry book, The River of Heaven. "The Legend" tells the story of an elderly man in Chicago who dies on the street in the winter. It is dedicated to a man who was accidentally shot in Chicago named Jay Kashiwamura. In the poem, Hongo explores the suddenness of death and human reactions to death.

• "Cruising 99" (1982): This long poem encompasses the experience of California in nine distinctive parts that explore different writing styles. The poem is tied together with the idea of a journey down Highway 99, which is also known as the Golden State Highway or "The Main Street of California." The poem is dedicated to the poets Lawson Fusao Inada and Alan Chong Lau, who worked with Hongo on the poetry book The Buddha Bandits Down Highway 99.

• "Kubota to Zbigniew Herbert in Lvov, 1941" (2017): In this poem, Garett Hongo writes from the perspective of his maternal grandfather, Hideo Kubota. Kubota was an American citizen who lived in Hawaii but was sent to Japan for school. The FBI accused him of being a spy during World War II, even though he was a simple fisherman and storekeeper providing for his family and community. The speaker of the poem, Kubota, writes to the Polish war poet, Zbigniew Herbert, with whom he sympathizes. Hongo explores the themes of racism and how people are judged and categorized simply by their ethnicity.

Garrett Hongo: Quotes and Writing Style

Garrett Hongo's writing often focuses on mundane moments of everyday life. He ties together natural and urban imagery to paint poignant scenes and stories. At the beginning of his poem "The Legend," Hongo illustrates the simple joy of an elderly man who has just gone to do his laundry on a snowy day at sundown:

Hongo writes by painting landscapes and emphasizing geography. In his poetry, people are greatly shaped by their geographic surroundings. This can be seen in his long poem, "Cruising 99," which takes the reader on a journey through California. The poem begins:

Hongo's writing style is narrative and deeply personal. He explores ideas about race from specific, intimate perspectives. In the poem "Kubota to Zbigniew Herbert in Lvov, 1941" the poet explores his great grandfather's hurt and dismay at being cast as an American traitor when all he did was show love for the Hawaiian land and his community:

Interesting Facts About Garrett Hongo

• Hongo was born in the back room of a store in Volcano, Hawaiʻi.
• Hongo and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was six, but he complained so much that they sent him back to Hawaii to live with relatives when he was 9. However, he was sent back to L.A. when he was ten.
• Garrett Hongo was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Florence in Italy.
• In his collection of essays, The Mirror Diary, Hongo explains the rhythm and sounds of free verse poetry through the jazz music of John Coltrane.
• Hongo compares himself to a landscape painter because he focuses on landscapes in his writing.