“The poet of rapture and tenderness” (Major Jackson, American Poets), Li-Young Lee speaks these poems with the intimacy and primacy of a whisper, as if from a lover to a beloved, or a believer to God. Each poem in The Invention of the Darling is a mysterious conjunction of spirit and matter, movement and stillness, the divine and the mundane, the sacred and the forbidden. They yearn for holistic union with The Beloved, every sentence another name for The Beloved, every poem another way to say “I love you”. Forged in awe of life and love, these poems emerge from the unlit depths of our earthly, material desires and our deepest fears of mortality.

"Countless gorgeous details provide, in poem after poem, distinct delights." -- Dan Chiasson - The New Yorker
"[Lee] challenges readers to think and to feel more deeply." -- Elizabeth Lund - The Washington Post
"Few poets write like Li-Young Lee…facing the biggest and broadest questions head-on…Fewer still ask these questions so well, and so movingly." -- Craig Morgan Teicher - The Los Angeles Times
"[Li-Young] Lee’s elegance transports us into the aspirations of yearning." -- David Biespiel - American Poetry Review
"Delight[s] in revelations that are holy and intimate…[Lee’s] wisdom situates itself in a fresh way." -- Derek JG Williams - Rumpus

Li–Young Lee is a poet and translator. He received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement, among other awards. Lee lives in Chicago.