Awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to travel across China and visit the graves of 36 Chinese poets. Porter's intention was to place himself within the landscapes where the poets lived and wrote, to translate representative poems, and to present a travel narrative for an American audience. When Porter arrives at a specific site – often with the aid of locals who know the terrain – he improvises rituals that involve small cups of American bourbon, incense, and reading poems aloud in Chinese....
