CHEATING by Yin Lichuan, tr. by Cecily Chen

$10 USD
7.5 x 7.5 inches
Glossy chapbook
44 pages

LOVER 情人

now, you come over
touching me, hugging me, biting my breasts
eating me, slapping me
nothing works anymore
now, no matter what we do
will always be mimicking, our past selves
it’s hot inside, you’re sweating
we’re rough. rougher than we ever were.
besides old age, nobody can
separate us. so quickly
have we become this

(2000/07/31)

Cheating collects the early writings of contemporary Chinese poet Yin Lichuan, including three erotic poems and her novella "Cheating". A founding member of the Lower Body Poets, Lichuan's writing focuses on harrowing psychological intrigue and the devastation of desire, her verse as uninhibited as her prose. This is the first time these works have ever been translated into English.

Yin Lichuan (b. 1973) is a Chinese writer, poet, and filmmaker. She is known as one of the founding members of the “Lower Body Poets,” an early 2000s avant-garde poetry group active in China that emphasized the intimate relationship between poetics and the fleshly, carnal, and sensual.

Cecily Chen is a PhD student in English and sexuality studies at the University of Chicago. You can find her writing in Entropy, Textual Practice, and Chicago Review. She thinks a lot about bad sex.