Join us on Friday, Oct 29 for a spooky night of poetry to celebrate the release of Susan Nguyen's debut collection Dear Diaspora! Dear Diaspora won the 2020 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was published in September by the University of Nebraska Press.
Susan will be reading from her collection along with featured readers Joal Salcido, Rashaad Thomas, and Sara Sams. Come in costume and be entered into a raffle for some ghostly goodies. Those who purchase a copy of Dear Diaspora will also get a companion zine (while supplies last). Sara's collection, Atom City, which was published in May will also be available for purchase.
"The first poem of Nguyen's powerful debut asks: "At the center of your calamity, what grows?" That question serves as an entry point for poems that interweave grief, exodus, and girlhood. Through the character Suzi, the reader is faced with the complexity of reckoning with inherited grief. Throughout, Nguyen interrogates the American dream. The final poem opens, 'I am learning how to hold grief/ in my mouth.' This powerful debut attests to that endeavor, and the way in which such work is necessary, beautiful, and full of complexity." - Publishers Weekly starred review
