Research Guides: Maxine Hong Kingston: Biography

Maxine Hong Kingston

(Born on October 27, 1940)

Kingston received an A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1962, the same year that she married Earll Kingston, an actor, soul mate, and charming raconteur. She earned a teaching certificate in 1965 and taught English and mathematics for the next two years in Hayward, California. Distraught over the Vietnam War in 1967, she and her husband moved with their son, Joseph, to Hawaii (like Wittman Ah Sing, his wife, Taña, and son, Mario, in 1989’s Tripmaster Monkey). There, she taught in secondary schools and colleges in and around Honolulu, including Mid-Pacific Institute, Honolulu (1970-1976) and the University of Hawaii (1976-1977). Hawai’i One Summer (1987) and the chapter “Water” in The Fifth Book of Peace (2003) capture her ambivalence about the islands, despite the fact that she was named a “Living Treasure of Hawaii” in 1980. Continue . . .

Source: Gidmark, Jill B., and Gina Macdonald. “Maxine Hong Kingston.” Critical Survey of American Literature, Dec. 2016, pp. 1628–1640. From Literary Reference Center Plus database.

Book Collection

The Woman Warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts

Maxine Hong Kingston's the Woman Warrior

Resources

To Be the Poet Kingston’s step-by-step discovery of how to be a poet is a discovery of how to infuse poetry with the fire that drives her prose.
I Choose the Poet's Life Presents an excerpt from the book 'To Be the Poet,' by Maxine Hong Kingston, which focuses on the life of poets.
From Warrior to Poet Maxine Hong Kingston Talks to Lori Tsang about Her Latest Book.
From Silence to Song: The Triumph of Maxine Hong Kingston Article by Linda Morante.
Lunch Poems: Maxine Hong Kingston Maxine Hong Kingston burst on the literary scene in 1976 with her book, "The Woman Warrior" . A UC Berkeley graduate and professor, she has delighted audiences with books such as "China Men" and "Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book". In recent years she has started to write more poetry, including "To Be the Poet" from Harvard University Press. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series"
2011 F. Scott Fitzgerald Interview with Maxine Hong Kingston An interview with Maxine Hong Kingston, the 2011 Honoree of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference held at Montgomery College, Rockville campus. Interview conducted by Josephine Reed, host of On The Margin on WPFW FM radio and Writers on Writing on Sirius Satellite Radio.

From Films On Demand database:

The Stories of Maxine Hong Kingston hen Maxine Hong Kingston was growing up in California, she listened to her parents’ stories and memories of their native China. In her highly acclaimed memoirs, The Woman Warrior and China Men, she linked those tales of tradition to the story of her own American experience, blending childhood memory, meditation, and magic. They are the most widely taught books by a living American author on college campuses today. In this program with Bill Moyers, Kingston discusses new images of America as a "melting pot" where the dutiful notions of the Puritans blend with the Chinese Monkey Spirit to produce a new American consciousness. (52 minutes)
Maxine Hong Kingston Viewer discretion is advised. Some language in this video may be offensive. This video contains mature themes. DESCRIPTION Listen to an excerpt from Kingston's "Woman Warrior." Mary Pat Brady describes her struggle. Greg Sarris describes the author's diverse narrative techniques.
Maxine Hong Kingston and the Road Back from Vietnam Facing the reality of what happened in Southeast Asia—and bringing others together to reconcile with it—has become the life work of novelist Maxine Hong Kingston, who teaches Buddhism and creative writing to Vietnam veterans. "In the workshops, [they] break out of the solipsism, the narcissism, the isolation," says Professor Kingston, who was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Clinton. In this program, Professor Kingston explores the causes and effects of alienation from one’s country in a journey to France in 1996 to meet with Thich Nhat Hahn, who was a strong presence at the Paris talks that later produced the peace accords ending the Vietnam War. (53 minutes)
Maxine Hong Kingston on Peace and War For 15 years, National Humanities Medalist Maxine Hong Kingston has been working with veterans—soldiers from World War II, from Vietnam, and now, from Iraq—to convert the ghosts of war into the poetry, fiction, and nonfiction that Kingston believes will help them survive. In this program, Bill Moyers speaks with Kingston about her book Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, an anthology called “powerful and finely written” by the Chicago Tribune. This timely work is the distilled wisdom of warriors and their loved ones expressing themselves with breathtaking artistry and truth. Broadcast date: May 25, 2007. (58 minutes)