Zhou Tao

Zhou Tao (1946–2023) was a prominent contemporary Chinese poet and essayist. His ancestral home was Shanxi, he was born in Beijing, and he moved to Xinjiang in 1955. He served as director of the creative office of the Xinjiang Military Region and as a first-class writer, and was honorary chairman of the Xinjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Xinjiang Writers Association. A leading figure of the New Frontier Poetry movement, he wrote mainly poetry and essays. His poetry collections Shenshan and Yemaqun, and essay collections Xishi zhi Niao, Youmu Changcheng and Wuli Huangyuan, draw on the landscapes and frontier life of Xinjiang, with broad vision, concise language and a blend of lyricism and reflection. He won the essay award of the first Lu Xun Literature Prize in 1996 and died in Urumqi in November 2023. The library also holds several of his works on medicine, finance and data, though public information on this side of his work is limited.