To introduce my new book Ocean of Clouds: Poems, I'll be appearing along the West Coast and in Georgia this fall. Here is a listing of the events. October 15, 6:00pm, Eugene, OR, Don Dexter Gallery October 23, 7pm Elliott Bay Books, Seattle, WA (with Kevin Craft) October 29, TBA, Saratoga, CA, Villa Montalvo (with Jeff Chang)
The title poem of my new collection appeared in The New Yorker on June 2, 2025. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/an-ocean-of-clouds-garrett-hongo-poem I sing for clouds, constant rains, a fern chorus of things forgotten, ginger flowers of sadness my mother bore, enormous hollows of the family’s past, my father the dutiful son come to run the
My latest poem in The New Yorker is a lament for the erosion of opportunities for solitude and quietism in contemporary life and a wish for their restoration while meditating on the seascape of the Mediterranean off the coast of Cassis, France. “On Emptiness”“If only I could stand the infinite measures, wait long enough, / and not waste their buoyant
Japanese American poet Garrett Hongo is a guiding spirit to a glorious cacophony, an exuberant collective thrum made of different tongues and peoples. His poetry embodies the country’s impurity, its multiplicity of tongues and peoples—what makes him a guiding spirit to the America that is surely coming. I Hear America Singing - JSTOR DailyJapanese American poet Garrett Hongo
“Litter for the Taking”“My dream life started in L.A.’s concrete world.”The New YorkerCondé Nast