Speculative literature author Peter Tieryas just wrote the very first review of my new book over at Entropy Magazine. Entropy is hands down one of my favorite online literature and culture sites, and I am so grateful for his generous critical attention!
My new book, SOLAR MAXIMUM is out!
My third collection, SOLAR MAXIMUM, is now available for order from Small Press Distribution! I am immensely grateful to Futurepoem for ushering it into the world as such an incredibly gorgeous object.
I wrote this book when I was filled with a great sense of turbulence and concern about our collective human future. I started to wonder what humanity might become–the spiritual essence of our humanity–in the wake of a massive disaster.
I had also begun a daily sky-watching practice…of simply and quietly observing the sky for a few silent minutes each day. I was touched by the way the sky was so transformative each instant, and how all terrestrial life makes its way under this vast aerial canopy.
I began to write these poems trying to trace–to speculate upon–this future spiritual phenomenon. I wanted to inhabit it as fully as I could from within my own consciousness, and poetry seemed the best mode for trying to do so. I envisioned a calamity we couldn’t escape–the dying sun. And I wondered about what strange, monstrous light it might cast in its final months and days. Many creatures experience a sudden bloom or intensity just before they die. I feel the sun would be no different at its end. But what would that mean for us, the intimate receivers of this light?
If you also feel full of a strange impending calamity, if you desire to let loose within yourself an otherwise of light, than I would love to share my words with you. To inhabit and imagine the space after together–even if only in a dream space.
Relinquish the Day: A Memory
My stepfather, James Kestell, passed away yesterday morning. He died with his son, nephew, and my two brothers as witnesses. Thinking about his passage onwards, my mind can’t help but recall some of the landscapes I wandered through last winter–in Iceland outside Reykjavik and along the mouth of the Snaefell peninsula, and in the arctic mountain plains outside of Tromso, Norway.
The intense saturation of blue at the cusp of the long nightfall holds the sky with a heavy physicality. The horizon disappears, and distances recede into you with profound intimacy. These landscapes helped me emit an immense grief. The endless wind that poured over the Atlantic and rolled across these icy plains simply pulled grief out of me, letting it roll with pale tendrils across white and blue reaches into un-nameability. Into far span, into farewell and soft light. I was called back into my humanity by my encounter with these severe landscapes. Maybe you will be, too.
#actualasianpoet
I won’t delve into the yellowface scandal in this year’s Best American Poetry anthology since I’ve already chimed in publicly elsewhere (at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop), but did want to acknowledge the incredibly generous comment by Janice Lee for lithub’s spotlight on #actualasianpoets. Lists in general are rather impossible enterprises, but I was honored to be included here.
new issue of boundary2 on race and social difference
I’m really honored to be included in this excellent boundary2 collection interrogating race and social difference, edited by Dawn Lundy Martin. This cohort of writers/thinkers has radically shaped my own sense of poetics. My work in this collection examines the psychological effect of globalized geopolitics: I write through the annual spring “Joint Military Exercises” held by South Korea and the US Government in which they “pretend” to siege North Korea. The journal is behind a paywall, but you can order print copies if you don’t have scholarly access. Click on the image to go to Duke University’s (the publisher) website for the journal.
Other contributors include Douglas Kearney, Ronaldo Wilson, Claudia Rankine, Beth Loffreda, Cathy Hong, Bhanu Jacasta Kapil, Tonya M. Foster, Shane McRae, Hoa Nguyen, John Keene, Evie Shockley, Daniel Borzutzky,Vanessa Place, Fred Moten, Lauren Russell, Farid Matuk, Daniel Tiffany,Duriel Estelle Harris, Prageeta Sharma, Jayson Smith, Simone White, Lucas de Lima, Tyrone Williams, Erica Hunt, Zhihui Ang, Lindsay Waters, Eli Friedlander, and Joseph Massad.
Lastly, just wanted to note that the cover image was created by Ronaldo Wilson!
A study of my work, by Brian Reed
Brian Reed, a scholar based at the University of Washington, wrote up a study of my poetry regarding spatial imaginations. His essay, titled “To Venture Outwards: Sueyeun Juliette Lee’s ‘Korea'” might be one of the closest readings of my work anyone has yet offered. The essay is public and posted at Arcade, a digital salon hosted by Stanford University.
I review Bhanu Kapil’s Ban en Banlieue
This is from the other month, but I completely forgot to post this. I reviewed Bhanu Kapil’s Ban en Banlieue at Constant Critic. If you aren’t familiar with her work, I think you’re missing out on one of the most important writing voices on the globe today. Truly.
Greenfield Community College
Smith College March 31
Work & Tumble
I gave a short interview to this new chapbook publication, Work & Tumble, based in Perth, Australia! My friend and former classmate, Robert Wood, is one of the editors/curators. They have several forthcoming publications in the mix, so if you love small press work, innovative writing, and want to expand your reading habits beyond a US context, this is definitely a press to keep your eyes on.
silentbroadcast 