Jidi Majia is one of China’s leading indigenous minority poets. In Words from the Fire he explores his Yi heritage in poems that incorporate Yi origin stories, myths, his endangered fire culture, environmental degradation, and the importance of poetic expression in a time of global changes. His writing is consistently tender, celebratory, and respectful of the natural world and the dignity of all people. He has received major awards in China and abroad, and has been translated into over twenty languages in thirty countries. His most recent honor is the Xu Zhimo Poetry Prize and Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK’s King’s College, Cambridge.
Born in 1961, Jidi Majia belongs to China’s Yi ethnic minority group, living in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. He graduated from Southwest Nationalities University, in Chengdu, and came to national attention when his book of poems Song of My First Love won the Third China National Poetry Prize in 1988. Since then, his reputation as a poet has spread worldwide. His work has been translated into over twenty languages and published in over thirty countries. The most recent of his many international awards are the 2017 Bucharest Poetry Prize, the 2017 Ianicius Prize of Poland, and Lifetime Achievement Award of Xu Zhimo Poetry Prize from King’s College Cambridge. He has served as Vice President and Member of Secretariat of the China Writers Association and vice-president of the All-China Youth Federation; he is currently vice-governor of Qinghai Province.
