Song of the Snow Lion features new fiction, poetry, and essays from Tibet. Since China's invasion of their country in 1950 and the suffering brought about by the Cultural Revolution, Tibetans have struggled to prevent their ancient culture and country from disappearing. At the same time, many Tibetans recognize that modernization in some form must come. Out of such difficult political conditions and cultural paradoxes, Tibetan authors have developed a literature that, despite Chinese censorship, explores the pressingquestions facing their country today. The authors in the feature include Tashi Dawa, Sebo, Tig Ta, Tashi Pelden, Alai, and Geyang. In addition, there are works by Yandon, the first Tibetan woman to publish a novel; poet and novelist Meizhuo, a woman of extraordinary range; and Dhondup Gyal, considered the founder of modern Tibetan writing. An overview essay by Tsering Shakya explains the rise of a modern Tibetan literature.

Songs of the Snow Lion: New Writing from Tibet, Frank Stewart, Tsering Shakya, & Herbert J. Batt, Paperback, 189 pages, $17.00

Frank Stewart been editor of Manoa: a Pacific Journal of International Writing since 1989. He is also an essayist, translator, and the author of four books of poetry. For his poetry, he was awarded the prestigious Whiting Writers� Award in New York in 1986 and other awards, including the Hawai'i Governor's Award for Literature. He has also edited eight anthologies on the contemporary literature and environment of Hawai', Asia, and the Pacific. These include Wao Akua: The Sacred Source, 2003, and The Poem Behind the Poem: Translating Asian Poetry into English, 2004. He represented American writers at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Indigenous and Contemporary Poetry, in Manila; was a U.S. representative to the Taipei International Poetry Festival, in Taiwan; the American representative to the Commonwealth Games/Literature in New Delhi, and he's been invited to other conferences in Seoul, New Delhi, and several cities in Japan.