PAOLO JAVIER FEATURED IN THE NEW YORKER

Ian Frazer's article, "Lack of Center," focuses on Paolo Javier's activities as Queens' Poet Laureate. You can see entire article HERE, but here's an excerpt:

More languages are spoken in Queens than in any place of comparable size on earth. So what and who should its poet laureate be? Well, take Javier: born in the Philippines, where he spoke English and Tagalog, and also understood some Spanish; moved to Katonah, New York, in seventh grade, when his father, an employee of PepsiCo, was transferred to the region; moved to Egypt the following year, when ditto; attended Cairo American College, an expat high school, where a teacher introduced him to the work of Robert Frost; learned some Arabic; moved with his family to Vancouver, where he discovered the work of Gertrude Stein; got a degree in creative writing from the University of British Columbia; ran an experimental theatre in Vancouver; accepted an offer to teach Tagalog at N.Y.U. in 1999; and moved to Queens, where he has lived ever since. His wife is Taiwanese-American, and his two-year-old daughter understands English, Mandarin, and Tagalog.

Await Paolo's new book, Court of the Dragon (Nightboat Books)!