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Bella Li Bella Li i(A110955 works by)
Born: Established:
c
China,
c
East Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1986
Heritage: Chinese
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BiographyHistory

Bella Li is a Melbourne poet. Born in northeastern China, she immigrated to Australia with her parents at the age of three. She holds a double degree in Arts / Law from University of Melbourne (with a major in English Literature), and has worked as a research assistant, judge's associate, and editor. In 2013, she enrolled in a PhD at the University of Melbourne.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Lost Lake Sydney : Vagabond Press , 2018 14000042 2018 selected work poetry

'Following on from the groundbreaking Argosy, Li's second collection Lost Lake ups the ante, taking the reader and literature alike into new reaches and realms of the imagination. Lost Lake, which exhibits Li’s distinctive use of text and image, consists of eight extended sequences of poetry, collage and photography, on subjects ranging from Dante’s Inferno and Steve Reich’s Different Trains, to the tomb of Newton and the archives of artist and autodidact Joseph Cornell. Through the eight sequences of Lost Lake, geography and music, history and architecture, works of art and literature, encounter each other in striking and unexpected ways, generating new hybrid objects. Lost Lake disassembles boundaries and challenges expectations of what a work of literature can be—its alchemy blooms in the spaces between eras, genres and forms.' (Publication summary)

2018 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Judith Wright Calanthe Award
y separately published work icon Argosy Newtown : Vagabond Press , 2017 11075538 2017 selected work poetry

'This innovative full-length collection, drawing inspiration from the surrealist collage novels of Max Ernst, is an arresting and utterly unique assemblage of poetry, collage and photography. In two parts, the book engages with themes of travel and exploration, language and loss, identity and originality, as well as the relationship between poetry and other disciplines: the visual arts, history, literature and film. Polyglot in sensibility and content, and daring in construction, Argosy defies categorisation. Grounded firmly in Australian contemporary poetic practice, the book is also outward-looking in its approach to form and content; it constitutes a landmark in both local and international poetics.' (Publication Summary)

2017 highly commended Anne Elder Award
2018 shortlisted Mascara Avant-garde Awards Poetry
2018 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
2018 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards The C. J. Dennis Prize for Poetry
y separately published work icon Maps, Cargo Sydney : Vagabond Press , 2013 6847452 2013 selected work poetry

'Maps, Cargo is a compendium of imagined and historical geographies, inhabited by explorers, ships, roads and rooms.' (Publisher's blurb)

2014 shortlisted Australian Centre Literary Awards Wesley Michel Wright Prize in Poetry
Last amended 9 May 2017 10:21:24
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