Ishle Yi Park

Poet and singer Ishle Yi Park’s first book of poetry, The Temperature of This Water (2004), won three literary awards, including the PEN America Open Book Award for Outstanding Writers of Color. Her work has been published in Ploughshares, Manoa, The Beacon Best, Best American Poetry, and Century of the Tiger: 100 Years of Korean Culture in America. 

Park has performed her poetry & songs at over 300 venues in the United States, Cuba, Aotearoa, Singapore, Korea, Jamaica, and South Africa. She was a touring cast member of Def Poetry Jam & regular on the HBO series, and has opened for artists such as KRS-One, Ben Harper, De La Soul, and Saul Williams. She has two CDs: Work is Love & Luminous, and Homegrown, with Ammon Tainui Watene (in a collaboration called Ohana Nui). 

Park served as the Poet Laureate of Queens, New York from 2004 to 2007. She lives in Hawaii.