Bone Skin Flesh 骨皮肉
by Yen Ai Lin 顏艾琳
Translated by Jenn Marie Nunes
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
Bone Skin Flesh《骨皮肉》是臺灣詩人顏艾琳的代表作。自 1997 年初版以來，即以坦率而銳利的筆觸探索女性特質與慾望，被譽為臺灣首部完整書寫情慾詩的女性詩集，在當代文學研究與公共論述中留下深遠影響。這本中英雙語版由詩人 Jenn Marie Nunes 翻譯並撰序，讓《骨皮肉》的詩聲在另一種語言中綻放，延展至更廣闊的閱讀場域。
About the Poet
Yen Ai-Lin 顏艾琳 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.
ISBN: 978-1-913891-63-3
Publication date: 1 September 2025
Format: Paperback (Demy octavo) 216mm x 138mm
Language: Bilingual edition in Chinese and English 中英文雙語, with introduction in English
Pages: 156 pp
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