Su Yen's Poetry Notes: (Add Your Own Ideas Series)

"The Dear Su Yen Picture-Poetry Notebook Series" provides introductions to a number of best-loved English poems and some that are not so well-known. Each poem is illustrated by an original interpretative drawing by Su Yen Hu, a modern designer from Taipei. Short explanations are provided by Dr Roy Preece, an English tutor who lives in Oxford and Su Yen provides imaginative interpretations. The combination of ideas and communication originated from an exchange of letters during one Christmas as told in the book "Dear Su Yen", which gradually turned into an ambitious effort to make the traditional wisdom approachable in modern days. Readers can find out quickly that the notebook builds up different layers of understanding towards those poems. As a modern designer, Su Yen wrote down her direct impressions and drew colourful fairytale-like pictures to make them appeal vividly not only to the mind but also to the eyes. Roy, on the other hand, with his knowledge of English history and culture, weaves deeper thoughts and interesting ideas with the simplest words into his introductions for the unique student whose mind was engaged only with modern designs before. Like the modern designer, Su Yen, who appreciates the classical poems in her own imaginative way, the readers are encouraged to write down their own thoughts in the note-pages provided, using their own experiences and background to personalize the book and make it the most different and interesting book in the world for themselves. Book 1 presents nine well-known poems and also provides an introduction to how the structure or metre of poems may be used to express mood. The imaginative illustrations are in colour. The poems include "Ariel's Song" from Shakespeare's "The Tempest", sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Shakespeare and ends with "The Tiger" by William Blake.

About the Author :
Su Yen was trained as a modern designer in Taiwan. Driven by a quest for beautiful yet practical design concepts, she came to Oxford for further studies. Exposure to classical English literature, arts and architecture gradually transformed her perspectives towards design and the world. She is now an author and illustrator. Su Yen was born in 1978 and grew up in the close family of a senior government official in Taiwan. After obtaining her Diploma in Advertisement Design at Shilin High School of Commerce in Taipei City in 1997 Su Yen spent a year working for a high class woman's fashion house. In 1998 Su Yen went to university in Kaoshiung and gained her first degree in Interior Design; she was awarded the top prize for her final design project in 2003 and won several national design competitions in the field of community planning. Meanwhile, a variety of part-time jobs undertaken during her study at university, such as being a lab assistant, project assistant, computer operator and computer sales person, customer service and engineering assistant, provided great opportunities for her to study human nature and to learn various communication skills for different occasions. Su Yen's first impressions of the buildings of Oxford transformed her interests from being a modern designer to the study of the development and conservation of historic buildings. Following her first Masters Degree in Spatial Planning at Oxford Brookes University in 2007, Su Yen obtained a second Masters Degree, with a Distinction for her written dissertation, in Historic Conservation at Oxford Brookes University in association with the University of Oxford. She is also the illustrator for the Picture Poetry Notebook Series based on Dear Su Yen, the photographer and editor for the English Culture and Life Notebook Series, and designs the covers for books published by Snowflake Books Ltd.