we explain they are apple-
pears, I explain them like I explain myself:
like one thing, like another
but neither, you must taste it to know it

(‘Apple-Pears’, Andy Quan)

Born in 1969 in Vancouver, B.C., Andy Quan is a third-generation Chinese-Canadian and fifth generation Chinese-American with roots in the villages of Canton. He is the author of four books. His first collections of poetry, Slant, and short fiction, Calendar Boy, were released in North America in 2001. Calendar Boy was published in Australia by Penguin in 2002 and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. In 2005, Six Positions: Sex Writing by Andy Quan was published. 

“I describe my writing practice, and myself as a writer, as methodically itinerant – that is, my writing consists of structured periods of editing and researching interlaced with freer periods of writing and thinking. The way I think about my poetic writing involves three distinct, not unrelated approaches: academic, exploratory, poetic. Poetic is listed last because it is what arises after the excitement of the other two more energetic approaches has died down – poetry for me expresses the essence of what remains to be said.”