Mountain River: Vietnamese Poetry from the Wars, 1948-1993 - Paperback

by Kevin Bowen (Editor), Nguyen Ba Chung (Editor), Bruce Weigl (Editor)

This landmark bilingual collection presents a comprehensive selection of Vietnamese poetry spanning nearly fifty years of warfare and its aftermath, from the Indochinese War (1946-1954) through the Vietnam War (1961-1975) and into the post-war period. Edited and translated by renowned Vietnam War scholars and poets Kevin Bowen and Bruce Weigl, in collaboration with Vietnamese poet and editor Nguyen Ba Chung, this volume captures the voices of Vietnamese writers who experienced, witnessed, or processed the transformative conflicts that shaped modern Vietnam.

Encompassing poetry from multiple generations, these poems reflect on the diverse responses to conflict: some express patriotic commitment, others grapple with loss and trauma, while many explore the intimate human experiences of war. Mountain River demonstrates how Vietnamese poets drew upon a rich literary tradition while creating new forms of expression to address the unprecedented scale of modern warfare. The result is a collaborative effort that represents a significant achievement in postwar Vietnamese-American literary relations and cross-cultural translation.

Author Biography

KEVIN BOWEN is a poet, translator, and director of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and its Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Some of his work includes Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong, Six Vietnamese Poets, Wil's Bones, and many more.

NGUYEN BA CHUNG is a writer, poet, and translator. He's helped translate multiple Vietnamese works, including: A Time Far Past; From a Corner of My Yard; Distant Road; Selected Poems of Nguyen Duy; Six Vietnamese Poets; Le Nguyen Zen Poem; and Carrying the Mountain and River on Our Shoulders.

BRUCE WEIGL is a poet and translator who focuses on American-Vietnamese relationships and experiences following the Vietnam War. His work received two Pushcart Prizes, a Patterson Poetry Prize, the Lannan Literary Award, and a variety of fellowships. Some of his work includes: A Romance, The Monkey Wars, Song of Napalm, Archeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems, After the Others, and The Circle of Hanh: A Memoir.