Li-Young Lee (b.1957) was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. Because his parents had been forced to flee China, Lee wandered through Hong Kong, Macau, and Japan with his family before finally settling in the United States. Of this experience, Lee has said, "I feel as if [my family's] experience may be no more than an outward manifestation of a homelessness that people in general feel."

Lee's writing includes his poetry collections Rose (1986) and The City in Which I Love You (1990), as well as his memoir The Winged Seed: A Remembrance (1995), which chronicles his family's journeys. His work has been honored with numerous prizes and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets.