Yun Wang

Poet and cosmologist Yun Wang grew up in rural southwest China. Her parents were educators. Her father was a political dissident who was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. He was Wang’s mentor in classical Chinese poetry. Wang began writing poetry when she was 12, and majored in physics at Tsinghua University when she was 16.

Wang is the author of three poetry books, The Book of Mirrors (White Pine Press, 2021), Winner of the 26th White Pine Press Poetry Prize, The Book of Totality (Salmon Poetry Press, 2015), and The Book of Jade (Story Line Press, 2002), Winner of the 15th Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize. Wang is also the author of two poetry chapbooks Horse by the Mountain Stream (Word Palace Press, 2016) and The Carp (Bull Thistle Press, 1994). Wang’s poems have been published in numerous literary journals, including Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review,Cimarron Review, Salamander, and Green Mountains Review.

Wang’s book of poetry translation, Dreaming of Fallen Blossoms: Tune Poems of Su Dong-Po, was published by White Pine Press in 2019. Her translations of classical Chinese poetry have been published in The Kenyon Review, Poetry Canada Review, Willow Springs, Connotation Press, and other publications. Wang collaborated with Li-Young Lee in translating the Daoist classic, Dao De Jing, by Laozi, into English as poetry (W.W. Norton, 2024).

Wang works as a cosmologist at California Institute of Technology, currently focused on space missions that explore cosmic mysteries. Her research focuses on studying dark energy, the unknown cause for the observed acceleration in the expansion of the Universe.