Jonathan Stalling

Born in Arkansas to artistic “back to the land” parents who were interested in Zen Buddhism, Jonathan Stalling began to seriously study the Chinese language at age 13. Now, he is a translator of Chinese poets such as Shi Zhi and the Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Literature Todayat the University of Oklahoma, where he also teaches. Stalling discusses how China’s oral poetic tradition has informed and shaped his own books, and shares work from Grotto Heaven, which was created by revising a Chinese grammar book, and Yingelishi, a collection that mixes the English and Chinese languages to create layers of meaning within the work. Hear more about Stalling’s views on interlanguage in his 2014 TedX Talk.