Garrett Hongo was born in Volcano, a village next to the crater of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii, in 1951, a fourth-generation Japanese American whose ancestors migrated to the islands as shopkeepers and cane cutters. When he was eight months old, his parents lost his grandfather’s general store and moved to Kahuku, a sugar plantation town in

The title poem of my new book appeared in the New Yorker on June 2, 2025. Link to audio recording provided as well. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/an-ocean-of-clouds-garrett-hongo-poem

Welcome to “In Retrospect,” our interview series which asks renowned poets to look back over their poems and collections, mapping out their poetic processes. From their early writing to their most recent collection, we’re looking to hear about core poems and fascinations which have shaped their body of work. In this interview, a poet whose work we deeply admire

Garrett Hongo joins Kevin Young to read “T’ang Notebook,” by Charles Wright, and his own poem “On Emptiness.” Hongo is the author of several books of poetry and nonfiction, including “Ocean of Clouds” and “The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo.” He’s received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and he’s