Author Description

Island records some of the earliest literary expressions of the Chinese in America: 135 poems written and carved into the barrack walls on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, where the immigrants were held for weeks and months while undergoing government scrutiny. The period was 1910 to 1940, when Angel Island was known as the Ellis Island of the West. The poems have been collected, translated, annotated, and organized into a beautifully designed two-color book that also contains photographs from the period and oral history interviews from people who lived through the frustrating and humiliating experience. The poems are presented in their original Cantonese side by side with English translations. This book is at once an important historical document and a significant work of literature.