Tina Chang Biography
Tina Chang is an American poet, teacher, and editor. In 2010, she was named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn.
Chang was born in 1969 in Oklahoma, to Chinese immigrants, who had met in Montreal, where her mother was working as a nurse and her father was earning his doctorate in physics. The family moved to New York when she was a year old. She was also raised in New York City. During her young age, Chang and her brother were sent to live in Taiwan with relatives for two years. “I started questioning even at a very young age, well, what is language?” she said. “What is the role of words?”
She later attended Binghamton University. She received her master of fine art's degree in poetry from Columbia University.
In every kind of dream I am a black wolf
careening through a web. I am the spider
who eats the wolf and inhabits the wolf's body.
In another dream I marry the wolf and then
...
It wasn't holy so let us not praise gods.
Let us not look to them for bread,
nor the cup that changed water to wine.
...
I am haunted by how much our mothers do not know.
How a republic falls because of its backhanded deals,
stairwell secrets. My mother does not know I am lying
...
My son rubs his skin and names it brown,
his expression gleeful as I rub a damp cloth
over his face this morning. Last night,
there were reports that panthers were charging
...
Last night I found my face below
the water in my cupped hands.
...
Delivering Poems Around The World
Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
2/27/2026 9:11:18 PM # 1.0.0
