Garrett Kaoru Hongo
Garrett Kaoru Hongo is an accomplished poet and author born on May 30, 1951, in Volcano, Hawaii, and later raised near Los Angeles. He is of Japanese descent and has profoundly explored themes of identity, heritage, and cultural sensitivity in his writing. His upbringing in Gardena, California—a community rich in Japanese American culture—shaped his awareness of race relations and urban life. Hongo’s literary contributions include several notable poetry collections, such as *Yellow Light* and *The River of Heaven*, the latter of which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
He has also published memoirs, including *Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai’i* and *The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo*, which delve into his family history and the multicultural aspects of his life. Hongo's work is characterized by its reverent and evocative style, often celebrating familial and cultural ties. He has served in academia as a professor of creative writing and has been recognized with awards for his contributions to poetry. Hongo continues to engage with diverse audiences through his writings and speaking engagements, representing the rich tapestry of Asian American experiences.
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Subject Terms
Garrett Kaoru Hongo
- Born: May 30, 1951
- Birthplace: Volcano, Hawaii
Author Profile
Garrett Hongo was born in the shadow of the Kilauea volcano but reared near Los Angeles. When he came to terms with his origins during a return to Hawaii in middle age, he liberated his spirit with a moving insight that solidified his sense of self and allowed insights into his identity. His poetry and prose are reverent, precise, and evocative, celebrating male ancestors, early Japanese poets, family, birthplace, and home.
Hongo is of Japanese descent. As a child, his family, however, did not confront the topic of Japanese American internment, which occurred during World War II. This led Hongo to live a life sheltered from the truth of his past. Hongo went on to live in multicultural communities. He grew up in Gardena, California. At the time, this town boasted the largest community of Japanese Americans on the mainland United States. It was bordered on the north by the Black American communities of Watts and Compton. On the southwest, its neighbors are Torrance and Redondo Beach, which were predominately White communities. Hongo was thus sensitized to issues of uneasy race relations and urban street life.
Hongo studied in Japan for a year following graduation from Pomona College. He then earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of California at Irvine. As a poet in residence in Seattle, he founded and directed a local theater group called The Asian Exclusion Act. Hongo identifies largely with the West Coast, a mecca for many Asian American writers. He established an early friendship and began collaborating with Lawson Fusao Inada, a pioneer Japanese American poet. His marriage to White violinist Cynthia Thiessen and their upbringing of two sons, Alexander and Hudson, have given Hongo a particular sensitivity to the cultural terrain he calls “the borderlands.”
In 1982, Hongo published his first poetry collection, Yellow Light. Hongo's 1988 poetry collection The River of Heaven was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He was a professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon, Eugene, serving as the department chair from 1989 to 1993. He received several extended leaves that allowed time in Hawaii to work on his prose memoirs, which he published in 1995 as Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai'i. Among the most important influences he identifies is Wakako Yamauchi, a widely anthologized Japanese American short story writer and playwright. Hongo edited Yamauchi’s works under the title Songs My Mother Taught Me: Plays and Memoir, which was published in 1994. His 2011 collection, Coral Road, examines his family history and that of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.
In 2022, Hongo published a memoir entitled The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo, dedicated to his father, Albert Kazuyoshi Hongo. In this work, Hongo displays a remarkable range of interests, writing about his personal family history, primarily in Los Angeles, and the multicultural nature of his upbringing. He also expresses his love of audio equipment, which aids his appreciation of music and inspired the book's title. Additionally, the book explores the topic of race in America. Hongo went on an extended book tour and appeared at many speaking engagements to promote this work. In the mid-2020s, Hongo continued to serve as a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Oregon. His work also continued to appear in prestigious publications, including The New Yorker and The Sewanee Review. In 2022, Hongo received the Aiken Taylor Award for his lifelong achievements in poetry.
Bibliography
Chock, Eric, and Darrell H. Y. Lum, editors. The Best of Bamboo Ridge: The Hawaii Writer’s Quarterly. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge, 1986.
Evans, Alice. "A Vicious Kind of Tenderness: An Interview with Garrett Hongo." Poets & Writers Magazine, vol. 20, no. 5, 1992, pp. 37–46.
Filipelli, Laurie. Garrett Hongo. Boise: Boise State UP, 1997.
"Garrett Hongo." Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/garrett-hongo. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
"Garrett Hongo." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/garrett-hongo. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
Hongo, Garrett. "On Emptiness." The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2024, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/26/on-emptiness-garrett-hongo-poem. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
Jarman, Mark. "The Volcano Inside." Southern Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 1996, pp. 337–43.
Kamada, Roy Osamu. Postcolonial Romanticisms: Landscape and the Possibilities of Inheritance. New York: P. Lang, 2010.
Slowik, Mary. "Beyond Lot’s Wife: The Immigration Poems of Marilynn Chin, Garrett Hongo, Li-Young Lee, and David Mura." MELUS, vol. 25, no. 3, 2000, pp. 221–42.
Sutherland, Amy. "Garrett Hongo: Reading Through Los Angeles and Hawaii." The Boston Globe, 17 Feb. 2022, www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/17/arts/garrett-hongo-reading-through-los-angeles-hawaii. Accessed 10 May 2023.
Toll, Martha Ann. "A Memoir of Family, Race, Poetry and Stereo Systems." The Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/18/memoir-family-race-poetry-stereo-systems. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.