China My China

Graywolf Press is scheduled to release a bilingual edition of poems by Liu Xiaobo, the currently incarcerated winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Price. The collection will be entitled June Fourth Elegies, and will mark the poet's first translation into English. According to Publisher's Weekly:

Liu, who is serving an 11-year prison term in China for “inciting subversion of state power,” was one of the leading activists of the non-violent protest at Tiananmen Square, and was one of the architects of the Charter 08 manifesto. Much of Liu’s writing has been confiscated due to his public criticism of the Chinese government; June Fourth Elegies has yet to be published in China.

Harvard University Press announced last week that the academic press will publish in early 2012 a collection of 31 critical essays about life in contemporary China written by Liu and compiled by his wife, Liu Xia. This book will also include some of Liu’s poems.