Wong May was born in 1944 in Chungking, China. She was brought up in Singapore by her mother Wang Mei Chuang, a classical Chinese poet, who taught school & wrote short stories. After graduating from the University of Singapore, she joined The Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1966. Harcourt Brace & World brought out her first book of poetry, A Bad Girl’s Book of Animals, in 1969, followed by two other books, Reports and Superstitions, in 1972 and 1978. In 1972 she was a visiting writer at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. She is married to an Irish physicist & has lived mainly in France & Ireland. They have two sons. Dublin has been her home since 1978. Her most recent book of poetry, Picasso’s Tears: Poems 1978-2013, was published by Octopus Books in 2014. Wong May paints under the name Ittrium Coey; her works have been shown in Grenoble (Dead Woman Singing, 2004) & Dublin (Teaching Simone Weil to eat Pineapple, 2007).