My Name Will Grow Wide Like a Tree

One of China’s most significant contemporary poets, co-translated by former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith *Shortlisted for the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize* Yi Lei published her poem “A Single Woman’s Bedroom” in 1987, when cohabitation before marriage was a punishable crime in China. She was met with major critical acclaim—and with outrage—for her frank embrace of women’s erotic desire and her unabashed critique of oppressive law. Over the span of her revolutionary career, Yi Lei became one of t