The Defiant Muse Vietnamese Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present: A Bililngual Anthology - Paperback

by Nguyen Thi Minh Hà (Editor), Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh (Editor), Lady Borton (Editor)

This unique collection offers over one hundred poems from over one hundred poets in the only bilingual anthology of Vietnamese women's poetry available anywhere in the world.

The poems in The Defiant Muse: Vietnamese Feminist Poems from Antiquity to the Present range from some of the earliest oral poetry, the first Buddhist spiritual poems written by women, and bold works by today's youth. Whether it is the historical expulsion of the Chinese or the cultivation of silk worms, this volume speaks to the exceptional moments and everyday realities of women's lives, of love and war, work in the fields and cities, life in their homeland and abroad.

Author Biography

Nguyen Thi Minh Hà (1956-) has degrees in Russian and in foreign languages and culture. Since 1978, she has been an editor at the Women's Publishing House (Hanoi), where she is responsible for foreign literature.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Bình (1955-) has a degree in Vietnamese and foreign literature. Since 1978, she has been an editor at the Women's Publishing House (Hanoi), where she is responsible for Vietnamese literature.

Lady Borton (1942-) has received two honorary degrees for her work with all sides during and after the Vietnam War and is currently Adjunct Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Ohio. She is author of four books about Vietnam and has translated Vietnamese poetry, fiction, and memoirs.