In the foreword to Li-Young Lee's first book,"Rose" (BOA Editions, 1986), Gerald Stern wrote, "Whatcharacterizes Li-Young Lee's poetry is a certain kind of humility, a kind ofcunning, a love of plain speech, a search for wisdom and understanding. . . . Ithink we are in the presence of a true spirit." Poetry lovers agree!"Rose" has gone on to sell more than eighty thousand copies, andLi-Young Lee has become one of the country's most beloved poets. "Breakingthe Alabaster Jar: Conversations with Li-Young Lee" is a collection of thebest dozen interviews given by Li-Young Lee over the past twenty years. From atwenty-nine-year-old poet prodigy to a seasoned veteran in high demand forreadings and appearances across the United States and abroad, these interviewscapture Li-Young Lee at various stages of his artistic development. He not onlydiscusses his family's flight from political oppression in China and Indonesia,but how that journey affected his poetry and the engaging, often painful,insights being raised a cultural outsider in America afforded him. Other topicsinclude spirituality (primarily Christianity and Buddhism) and a wide range ofaesthetic topics such as literary influences, his own writing practices, therole of formal and informal education in becoming a writer, and his currentlife as a famous and highly sought-after American poet.