Angels for the Burning

by David Mura

In Angels for the Burning , David Mura examines the experience of contemporary Asian-Americans and the various aspects of familial history between first-, second-, and third-generation Japanese-Americans. Mura believes one of poetry’s tasks is to explore the challenges to our identities as we encounter various “others” and other visions of ourselves and our world. Mura’s new collection of poems attempts to accomplish this task. David Mura is a poet, nonfiction writer, critic, playwright and performance artist. His numerous awards include a Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writer’s Award and two NEA fellow-ships. He has been featured in a number of PBS shows on literature, art and identity. He lives in Minneapolis, MN.

Genres: Poetry

119 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

David Mura (born 1952) is a Japanese American author, poet, novelist, playwright, critic and performance artist. He has published two memoirs, Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei, which won the Josephine Miles Book Award from the Oakland PEN and was listed in the New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity (1995). His most recent book of poetry is The Last Incantation (2014); his other poetry books include After We Lost Our Way, which won the National Poetry Contest, The Colors of Desire (winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award), and Angels for the Burning. His novel is Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire (Coffee House Press, 2008). His writings explore the themes of race, identity and history. His blog is blog.davidmura.com.

David Mura was born in 1952 and grew up in Chicago, the oldest of four children. He is a third generation Japanese American son of parents interned during World War II. Mura earned his B.A. from Grinnell College and his M.F.A. in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, St. Olaf College, The Loft Literary Center, and the University of Oregon. He currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife Susan Sencer and their three children; Samantha, Nikko and Tomo.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. It really underwhelmed me.

[Jerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believed this past my so-called fail-proof method of choosing books to read.