Yi Sha was born in 1966 in Chengdu, and moved with his family at the age of two to the central Chinese city of Xi’an in Shaanxi province. He published his first poems while still at school, studied Chinese at Beijing Normal University, and became a noted figure among China’s university student poets. He has worked on literary magazines, as a TV presenter and independent publisher, and is now an assistant professor at the Xi’an International Studies University. In 1988 he published a mimeographed first collection, Lonely Street, but found an official publisher for his next collection, Starve the Poets! (1994). His other poetry and prose titles have included Vagabond Wharves (1996), This Devil Yi Sha (1998), The Bastard’s Songs (1999), Blaspheming Idols (1999), Fashion Assassin (2000), Critique of 10 Poets (2001), My Hero (2003), Whoever Hurts, Nows (2005) and Shameless Are the Ignorant (2005). His poetry has been translated into several languages, but he has been refused permission to give readings outside China on a number of occasions. His Selected Short Poems was published in a bilingual Chinese-English edition in Hong Kong in 2003. Starve the Poets! (Bloodaxe Books, 2008) is his first English publication outside China.
