ABOUT ISHLE PARK
Ishle Yi Park is a Korean American woman born and raised in Queens, New York. Her work has been published in over 30 anthologies, including The Best American Poetry of 2003, edited by Pulitzer-prize winning Yosuf Komunyakaa. She has recently been named the Poet Laureate of Queens, New York.

Ishle has performed at over three hundred venues across the United States, Cuba, New Zealand, Singapore, and Korea. She was featured on HBO's Def Poetry Jam and the NAACP Image Awards reading a tribute poem to Venus and Serena Williams. A feature article in The New York Times said, "Ishle has the face of an angel and the soul of a rock star."

As Arts-In-Education Director of the Asian American Writers' Workshop, Ishle worked to bring Asian American artists into New York City public high schools. She also worked as a writer-in-residence at the Youth Speaks Literary Arts Center in California. She has taught creative writing in high schools, colleges, prisons, and community centers throughout New York, Oakland, and San Francisco.

Ishle's CD, entitled Work is Love, includes tracks with Korean traditional drums, Spanish guitar, beatboxing, and music produced by Japan's critically acclaimed DJ Honda. Her first book, entitled The Temperature of this Water, published by Kaya Press, is a winner of the PEN American Beyond Margins Award 2005.

This year Ishle was a touring cast member of the Tony-Award winning Russell Simmons presents: Def Poetry Jam, performing in 51 cities in the United States and at the Auckland Festival in New Zealand.

Ishle Yi Park currently lives in New York.

Above image courtesy of Ishle Park.

For more information about Ishle Park, please visit www.ishle.com