In this highly unusual chapbook, memorable poetry and beautiful calligraphic art are married to exquisite tastes. One immediately identifies with Mong-Lan's poems, while with her calligraphic art, one wishes to linger. And, the tastes remain, even after the pages are closed. Whether Mong-Lan is singing of her love to food or writing of Southeast Asia (particularly Vietnam and Thailand), her poetry is quick-witted, humorous, vibrant, intoxicating and worldly. One sips the words slowly, imbibes to smell, not only to taste; then to devour wholeheartedly of what the soul sings.

Welcome to the tango, sensual, elusive and alluring. In "Tango, Tangoing: 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 once again brings us her tango art, full of sensuality, vigor and loveliness. Based in Buenos Aires, Mong-Lan shares with us her tango vision, a world of lines, flowing bodies in motion. A world of great heart, a blossoming love, and a vision all her own. Reminiscent of Picasso, Matisse, and the great artists of this century, Mong-Lan's pen and inks on paper are like performance pieces on the page, a moment captured. Floating, yet grounded in a ferocity of the mind along with Mong-Lan's impeccable technique of the hand and eye, the dancers tango in a centrifugal force of the heart....

An alluring gem of a chapbook, "Love Poem to Ginger & Other Poems: poetry & paintings" follows Mong-Lans much-lauded "Love Poem to Tofu & Other Poems." An absolute treasure tapestry of poems and paintings, this pocket-sized edition calls joy by its true name and makes pleasure an art. "Mong-Lans poems are fresh and real as a street, full of the seriousness of pleasure. She has the same sense of joy that Kenneth Koch loved in the courage to sing, happiness of St.-John Perse. The courage of Frank OHara who said that the smallest idea in ones own head was better than an old idea in some other...

In Mong-Lan's new collection of poems, One Thousand Minds Brimming: poems & art, desire, love and mayhem lay bare reality's vicissitudes. Mong-Lan's observations about personal history and past wars in Vietnam and Cambodia are poignant, indeed heartbreaking. These poems defy gravity and darkness, and emerge undiminished; more so, like diamonds. They illuminate the spirit, and dissect the human heart with grace, humor and clarity. Mong-Lan's artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States such as the Dallas Museum of Art, and in public exhibitions in Tokyo, Buenos...