Irene Hsiao

　　"This book hits the note of melancholy, lyricism, and whimsy that always gets me in my favorite art.

　　I loved the pacing, the way silences open up in it, the way color becomes a marker of selfhood in a grey alienated world, and the heartache in the final wish that the letter finds its way home (wherever that is)."

　　“本書聲調和諧，含蓄蘊藉，情景交融，藉色彩表達作者在一灰色異鄉的清愁，而以前路黯然，信落何方抒離情別緒，深契我喜愛藉詩歌表達幽渺情懷的藝術境界。＂~~Srikanth (Chicu) Reddy, 美國芝加哥大學英國文學教授 Voyager 作者

　　“以詩人的細膩來發掘人文的情趣。

　　她以相機代筆，攝取那些足以使她感動的點點滴滴，⋯⋯，可是只要沉下心來，你會體會到鏡頭下可以開拓的心靈境界，是一個出乎你想像之外的天地。＂~~漢寶德
 

作者簡介

蕭佳芸  Irene Hsiao

　　Irene Hsiao received her education in literature and science on scholarships at UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago. Her poetry has appeared in Word Riot, elimae, and A Clean Well-Lighted Place. Her critical writing has been published in the Cambridge Quarterly, Victorian Poetry, Literary Imagination, and Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States. She has received a Louis Martz Prize from the William Carlos Williams Society and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She took these photos while teaching in the English department at National Taipei University of Technology.

　　．美國加州柏克萊大學畢業
　　．芝加哥大學英國文學博士
　　．詩歌創作刊載於 Word Riot, elimae, 及 A Clean Well-Lighted Place, 並獲提名 Pushcart 獎。
　　．學術論文發表於 Cambridge Quarterly, Victorian Poetry, Literary Imagination, 及 Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States 等專刊。
　　．曾獲William Carlos Williams學會 Louis Martz 獎。

　　本書照片為作者任教於台北科技大學英國文學系時所攝。
 

推薦序

　　Irene是一個在美國成長並受教育的台灣孩子。

　　回到台灣所看到的一切都是陌生而新奇的。但是她並不是以批評的態度來觀看醜陋的台北市，而是以詩人的細膩來發掘人文的情趣。

　　她以相機代筆，攝取那些足以使她感動的點點滴滴，跟著她的鏡頭所看到的是一個完全不同的台北。
　　誠然，如果沒有詩人的情懷，她的這本書會給你一種不易理解的挫折感。
　　可是只要沉下心來，你會體會到鏡頭下可以開拓的心靈境界，是一個出乎你想像之外的天地。

　　請你細細品嘗吧！～～漢寶德

感謝

Acknowledgements

　　I have so many people to thank, friends and family and teachers far and near who knowingly or unknowingly supported the creation of this book that this list cannot possibly be exhaustive and may contain terrible omissions.

　　Special thanks to Cheng and Amy Hsiao, Sunny Sun, Han Paoteh, Andrew Chen,
Helen Tu, Wendy Tsai, Wang Chiuhwa, Helen Chen, Steve and Christie Coffin, Joyce Cheng, Yael Vidan, Emily Sun, Suzanne Buffam, Chicu Reddy, Mira Reddy, Jing Hsiao, John Hsiao, Cynthia Kozin, Lee Ching-chun, Adam Hsu, Zhuang Yuanting, Katherine Alexander, Bethany Hull, Iping Su, Ewen Chiu, Chou Changning, Tzu-Ying Lee, Ronelson Yadao, Huiling Liu, Wanchun Ko, Muhan Chen, Wang Po-Nien, Amy Hou, Miruko Huang, Chiaching Hsu, Winson Wang, Leslie Kuo, Yi-Ping Yeh, Huang Gulu, Tzu-Chun Lin, Huang Hsu-hui, Miruko Huang, Winifred Haun, Kirstie Simson, Tamin Totzke, Eduardo Fukushima, Daniel Greenberg, Wolfgang Schwabe, Urs Schmidt-Ott, Richard Strier, Bradin Cormack, Alan Thomas, Karen Merikangas Darling, Rivi Handler-Spitz, Jenny Ludwig, Lauren Meadows, Sara Bencivenga, Giuseppina Malinverni, Julia Treindl, Janet Connor, Daiane Lopes da Silva, Karen Meyers, Julia Orell, Liu Chiung-Yun, Ling Chen, Anne-Lise Francois, Celeste Langan, Shadi Bartsch, Chuck Thurow, Louise LeBourgeois, Jenifer Viencek, Deirdre Hamill-Squiers, Sidney Nagel, Young-Kee Kim, Shirley Tsui, Grace Tsiang, Richard Payne, T.F. Liu, Sandra Macpherson, Cloud Gate Dance Theater, Cloud Gate II, WC Dance, and my students in Cross Cultural Studies and first year advanced General English.