Kuo, Alex (Alexander Kuo)

PERSONAL:

Born in Boston, MA; married; wife's name Joan. Education: Knox College, B.A.; University of Iowa, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, Washington State University, P.O. Box 645020, Pullman, WA 99164-5020. Agent—Nancy Stauffer Associates Literary Agents, P.O. Box 1203, Darien, CT 06820. E-mail—alexkuo@wsu.edu.

CAREER:

Writer, educator. Served as teacher and administrator at various universities in the United States and abroad, including Peking University, Beijing Forestry University, Jilin University, and Hong Kong's Baptist University; Mercy Corps, Portland, OR, writer-in-residence, 2002-03; Washington State University, Pullman, writer-in-residence; Harvard Review, Cambridge, MA, staff writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Three National Endowment for the Arts grants; awarded grants from the United Nations and the Idaho Commission for the Arts; Senior Fulbright Scholar, China, 1991-92; Lingnan fellow, Hong Kong, 1997-98; American Book Award for Lipstick and Other Stories, 2002; Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residency, 2003-04.

WRITINGS:

The Window Tree, Windy Row Press (Peterborough, NH), 1971.

New Letters from Hiroshima, Greenfield Review Press (Greenfield Center, NY), 1974.

Changing the River, I. Reed Books (Berkeley, CA), 1986.

The Fierce Geography, Limberlost Press (Boise, ID), 1999.

Chinese Opera, Asia 2000 (Hong Kong, China), 2000.

Lipstick and Other Stories, Orchid Pavilion (Hong Kong, China), 2002.

Panda Diaries, University of Indianapolis Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2006.

Contributor to various periodicals, including Amerasia Journal, Ploughshares, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and anthologies, including Craig Lesley's Dreamers and Desperadoes, Ishmael Reed's From Totems to Hip-Hop, and Andre Codrescu's American Poets Say Goodbye to the 20th Century.

SIDELIGHTS:

Alex Kuo is a prolific author of poetry and prose, both fiction and nonfiction. He has received a number of grants and endowments to subsidize his work, as well as several awards. Lipstick and Other Stories, for which Kuo won the American Book Award, is a collection of short fiction combining humor, vivid imagery, irony, and even parody. Robert H. Abel, in the Asian Review of Books, remarked: "Very few writers use the English language with Kuo's facility and inventiveness; and very few can with his artistry take us past the surface of everyday events to the bedrock of emotional truth." Panda Diaries, a novel, tells the story of a man, previously employed by the Chinese Secret Service, who wishes to have a normal life. Lee Minh McGuire, in a review for Washington State magazine, found the book "timely," noting: If a nation or a people are to be judged by how they treat the most helpless members of their society, then all parties in this global farce need to be held accountable, and all citizens beware."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Internet Bookwatch, September 1, 2006, review of Panda Diaries.

ONLINE

Alex Kuo Home Page,http://www.alexkuo.org (July 25, 2007).

Asian Review of Books,http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/ (March 7, 2001), Robert H. Abel, review of Lipstick and Other Stories.

Ask Web site,http://libarts.wsu.edu/ (July 25, 2007), Natascha Karlova, "On Lipstick, Rodeo Queens, Creative Compatibility, and Making a Difference."

Paddyfield,http://www.paddyfield.com/ (July 25, 2007), author biography.

Rain Taxi Online,http://raintaxi.org/ (July 25, 2007), Lucas Klein, review of Panda Diaries.

University of Washington Bothell, Alumni Web site,http://.ealumni.washington.edu/ (July 25, 2007), alumni biography.

Washington State,http://washington-state-magazine.wsu.edu/ (July 25, 2007), Lee Minh McGuire, review of Panda Diaries.

Washington State University Web site,http://www.wsu.edu/ (July 25, 2007), faculty biography.

WSU Today,http://www.wsutoday.com/ (April 12, 2002), Mike Long, "Kuo Wins American Book Award."