Bone Skin Flesh

By Yen Ai Lin

Bone Skin Flesh by Yen Ai-lin, first published in Chinese in 1997, now appears in a bilingual edition with its first English translations by Jenn Marie Nunes. A landmark in contemporary Taiwanese poetry, these poems revel in the feminine-its desires, violences, and contradictions-through language that is visceral, imagistic, and unrelenting.

Here the body is never just metaphor: truth is spit, the sky a leaking breast, the moon a tongue pressed to skyscrapers. Women recur-mother, lover, crone-mythic and ordinary, tender and grotesque.

Infused with punk spirit and kin to the Gurlesque, Yen's work claims the feminine as a site of rebellion, pleasure, and creation. Urgent and intimate, Bone Skin Flesh is poetry that demands not only to be read, but lived with.

"Ai-lin writes as a poet of humanity's true homeland, free from parochial traditions. Her words affirm human values and open new horizons, making her one of Taiwan's most respected and cherished contemporary voices." - Zheng Chouyu (鄭愁予), Poet

About the Poet

Yen Ai-Lin is a Taiwanese poet whose work moves between modern poetry, lyrical prose, and cultural criticism. She was the first female poet in Taiwan to publish a sustained series of erotic poems-works that ignited wide discussions on gender and desire. Her writing, shaped by diverse influences, has been honored with the National Outstanding Young Poet Award, the Ministry of Culture's Outstanding Award for New Poem Creation, the Genesis Poetry Magazine 35th Anniversary Poet Award, the inaugural Taipei Literature Award, the Wu Zhuoliu New Poetry Award, and more. Through her words, Yen has left a lasting imprint on readers, on public discourse, and on the study of contemporary literature.

About the Translator

Jenn Marie Nunes is the author of And/Or (2015), winner of the Switchback Books Queer Voices Award, and Those People, winner of the 2016 National Poetry Review Press Prize. She holds an MFA from Louisiana State University and a PhD in Chinese literature from The Ohio State University, specializing in modern poetry and film with a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her work spans poetry, translation, and scholarship, with a focus on cross-cultural and feminist literary exchange.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1913891631
• ISBN13: 9781913891633
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Balestier Press
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"