I’m David Perry, a writer, editor and teacher with over a decade of experience in and out of academia. I’ve been living and working in Shanghai for the past ten-plus years, on and off, after a six-year stint in New York and time spent living, working and studying in Kansas City, Iowa City, Berlin, San Cristobal de las Casas and the US Virgin Islands, among other places.

Now I live in Shanghai’s former French Concession with my wife, the artist Monika Lin, and our daughter Sophia. I teach in the Writing Program at NYU Shanghai.

Teaching

Since earning my MFA in Translation from from the University of Iowa’s Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature, I’ve taught creative writing, composition, literature and magazine production courses at NYU Shanghai, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Kansas City Art Institute, St. John’s University and the University of Iowa.

Poetry, translation, editing and critical writing

I’m a poet, with two collections, Range Finder and Expat Taxes, to my name, along with two chapbooks, Knowledge Follows and New Years, and a modest slew of poems in various magazines and journals. I also have written some book and art reviews and criticism. My translation of the Shanghai-based poet Han Bo’s poem cycle 中东铁路 / Zhongdong tielu appeared in the spring of 2019 as The China Eastern Railway, a chapbook produced in collaboration with Monika Lin as part of our Seaweed Salad Editions project. I edited Matt Turner’s new translations of Lu Xun’s 野草/Ye cao, published in 2020 as Weeds, and Ghosts City Sea, a collection of Wang Yin’s poetry translated by Andrea Lingenfelter.

For a working list of publications and links, including recent academic journal articles, go here or check my blog, Pyramid News Scheme.

Writing, editing & consulting

Contact me at dchopas [ a t ] gmail with inquiries.