Ocean of Clouds

“Garrett Hongo’s lifelong project is an act of reclamation. As you read through his work, both in poetry and prose, you can see him finding his way, claiming his heritage, or trying to, as he invents his own rituals and memorials, talking story, and trying to fill in this shoal of a family story line… . I consider him one of our most important practitioners of latter-day Romanticism—and this makes him the kind of American poet determined to make linkages, to create a continuity and tradition forhimself… . Hongo has carefully imagined another kind of family dispersed across the globe, poets and fiction writers, but also artists of all kinds—jazz saxophonists, fresco painters, all those who try to serve what Wordsworth called ‘the beauty that was felt.’” —Edward Hirsch, The Heart of American Poetry

GARRETT HONGO was born in Volcano, Hawaiʻi, and grew up on the North Shore of Oʻahu and in Los Angeles. His most recent books are The Perfect Sound- A Memoir in Stereo, The Mirror Diary- Selected Essays, and Coral Road- Poems. He has been the recipient of several awards, including fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. Hongo lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches at the University of Oregon, where he is Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.