First Mountain
The poet travels from her home in the United States to her ancestral village in Shanxi province to bury the ashes of her paternal grandparents in a ritual lasting several days. The narrative arc of the story movingly explores death and life, a multi-branched and multi-generational clan, and ancient and modern belief systems, as it moves toward a tragic climax. First Mountain is bilingual on facing pages, and Zhang Er's third book to be published by Zephyr Press.
JOSEPH DONAHUE is an American poet, critic, and editor. Donahue was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts. He attended Dartmouth College for his undergraduate degree, received his doctorate at Columbia University, and lived for many years in New York City. He now resides in Durham, North Carolina, where teaches at Duke University. The third volume in Joseph Donahue's ongoing poem Terra Lucida, entitled Dark Church, was published by Verge Books in 2015. Other recent titles include Red Flash on a Black Field and Dissolves.
