Sibyl James is a Seattle poet and teacher. She is also a poet and teacher of the world—she has had teaching residencies in Mexico, Cote d'Ivoire, Tunisia, and China, to name a few. A three-time recipient of Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowships, the author of two memoirs, and numerous poetry collections, she reads here in this still, very new year, for her newest collection of poems, China Beats (Egress Studio Press). "Sibyl James ... becomes deeply steeped in China during her year teaching there. Its reality mixes with her Westerner's consciousness in unique ways. James moves between dragons and Buddhas, Chinese and English, between being teacher and student, listening for the underlying rhythm of all and rendering it in sensitive and elegant poems." - Judith Roche. "Of those American poets who have written movingly of China while traveling and/or teaching there—including Lois Baker, Willis Barnstone, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Hansen, and very early on, Eunice Tietjens—none have written finer lyrics than Sibyl James in her collection, China Beats. James' poems are ... poems that in their depth of feeling, tautly tuned music, and keenness of detail touch to the quick of Chinese culture." - Michael O'Connor.