Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art

by Mộng-Lan

Welcome to the tango, sensual, elusive and alluring. In "Tango, Poems & Art," Mong-Lan extends an invitation to explore with her the sensual world of Argentine tango through poetry and art. Her striking poetry and elegant pen & ink drawings of tango dancers illuminate and reveal this remarkable world in an original manner that captivates and intrigues, leaving you "breathless from its impassioned elaborations and imagistic intensity." Prize-winning poet, visual artist and Argentine tango dancer / teacher, Mong-Lan combines her talents and knowledge in one beautiful, luminous book. Mong-Lan's honors include the Juniper Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship in Vietnam, a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, inclusion in Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize Anthology volumes. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries in the United States, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the U.S. Capitol House, and in public exhibitions in Tokyo, Seoul, Bali and Bangkok.

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Mong-Lan, poet, novelist, essayist, former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, a Fulbright Scholar, winner of a Pushcart Prize, the Juniper Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Awards for Poetry, is the author of seven books and three chapbooks, the most recent of which is the full length collection, Dusk Aflame: poems & art, and the chapbook, Tone of Water in a Half-Filled Glass. Other books include One Thousand Minds Brimming; Song of the Cicadas; Why is the Edge Always Windy?, Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art; Tango, Tangueando: Poemas & Dibujos (the bilingual Spanish-English edition); Love Poem to Tofu & Other Poems (poetry & calligraphic art, chapbook); Love Poem to Ginger & Other Poems: poetry & paintings (chapbook); Force of the Heart: Tango, Art. Mong-Lan’s poetry has been nationally and internationally anthologized to include being in Best American Poetry; The Pushcart Book of Poetry: Best Poems from 30 Years of the Pushcart Prize; Asian American Poetry: the Next Generation; Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond (Norton); and has appeared in journals such Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, and North American Review.

Mong-Lan, recipient of the University of Arizona Graduate College Fellowship and the Dean's Master of Fine Arts Fellowship, took her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona, Tucson. A former university professor, she has taught at the University of Maryland in Tokyo, Stanford University and the University of Arizona.

Also a dancer, visual artist (painter, photographer), musician, composer and singer, she left her native Viet Nam on the last day of the evacuation of Sai Gon. 

Mong-Lan has read and performed her poetry and music on many stages, to include at universities, schools, libraries, bars, and cabarets, across the U.S. and internationally, such as at Harvard University, Stanford University, in poetry festivals and academic presentations in Bali; Indonesia; Germany; Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam, Argentina, to name a few. 
Visit: https://www.monglan.com

Reviews

[Jordan S.]

Amazing perspective of the Argentine tango from the point of view of a dancer, woman artist, poet. Her lyricism ranks her amongst the top tango poets, and indeed contemporary poet. Also, I just can't get over her lovely gestural tango drawings which capture movement, passion, desire. A bravura of a book!

[Morgan T]

"step into the illogical entering
this embrace
we can't escape destiny"

Already a tango classic in poetry and visual art, Mong-Lan's "Tango, Tangoing" is a lyrical, visually gorgeous, ascendance and descendance into the exclusive world of the Tango. One must ponder each word, each phrase with weighted gravity, to get at its meaning, sometimes mystical, sometimes a reminder of what to do or think while dancing. An investigation into relationships, male female, yin yang, leader-follower. Her drawings of the tango dancers are inimitable, masterly.

[Jordan S.]

These translations of Mong-Lan's book of poems centered on the tango, "Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art" are wonderful, true to the spirit of the Argentine vernacular. Indeed, this gem of a book is a bilingual edition, for those bilingual readers or those who want to be. Amazing perspective of the Argentine tango from the point of view of a dancer, woman artist, poet. Her lyricism ranks her amongst the top tango poets, and indeed contemporary poet. Also, I just can't get over her lovely gestural tango drawings which capture movement, passion, desire. A bravura of a book!

[Morgan T]

Gorgeous bilingual edition of Mong-Lan's tango classic, Tango, Tangoing. A must have for your Argentine literature shelf, or south American literature shelf, as she writes about the Tango, the national dance of Argentina. I'm also awestruck by the masterly drawings of tango dancers throughout the book.