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Afterland : Poems by Mai Der Vang (2017, Trade Paperback)

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Product Identifiers

PublisherGraywolf Press

ISBN-101555977707

ISBN-139781555977702

eBay Product ID (ePID)222057935

Product Key Features

Book TitleAfterland : Poems

Number of Pages96 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2017

TopicGeneral, American / General

GenrePoetry

AuthorMai Der Vang

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.3 in

Item Weight6.2 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2016-938843

ReviewsWINNER OF THE 2016 WALT WHITMAN AWARD OF THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS, SELECTED BY CAROLYN FORCH "Afterland's voice seems to transmigrate, riding the trance of memory from one image to the next. . . . Vang's work moves in the realms of ecstatic appeal where meaning is revealed cumulatively. Her ambient revelations read more like incantations. . . . She teeters and ultimately tumbles headlong into the realms of memory and dream, expertly crafting fine and elegant passages on her way." -- Los Angeles Review of Books "Line after line flow[s] like a satin ribbon burning at each end with terrible truths. . . . Unrelentingly stunning language. . . . After reading, nothing will ever be the same. This is a blazing book." -- Washington Independent Review of Books "Mai Der Vang showcases her moving work in this powerful collection of poems. . . . She sheds light on this little-known part of history and how its legacy is present even in the United States today." -- Real Simple "Mai Der Vang gives fiery, poetic voice to a secret war and a dispersed people in her powerful poetry collection Afterland . . . . A visually rich and heartrending poetry collection." -- Shelf Awareness "Vang's collection interweaves profoundly personal recollections with unflinching glimpses into the circumstances of refugees past. . . . Amid bullets and bees, cyanide and stars, humpbacks and harvests, Vang imbues her imagery not only with loss but also with the remarkable resilience and crystalline spirituality of Hmong lore and language. "Ask me to build our temples / So rooted, so stone, we won't ever die out," Vang writes. With this luminous, indelible volume, she's already built one." -- Booklist , starred review "I am astounded at how this poet accomplishes these tellings of war, of the Hmong peoples, of escape, exile, of never-leaving, of always-arriving--of retracing the life-particles of the dead in various forms of disappearance and presence. In a language of 'torn jackets' and fruit, of insects and mothers, of humpbacks and shamans, Mai Der Vang comes back at us as the 'carved edge of a claw.' The mastery of image, the leap, the dislodging of our perceptions, fluid as the 'humming of rain against a woman's neck.' A major, almost impossible, groundbreaking collection." --Juan Felipe Herrera, US Poet Laureate "Each poem in Mai Der Vang's Afterland hones a spiritual and social truth as she delivers the lament of her people--the Hmong--in this groundbreaking collection. The poet's ancestors speak to us. But silence also belongs to these telling songs that expose us to the bare evidence of war, and one knows through true feeling exactly what this poet means when she says, 'Ants are spies of the dead.' Afterland speaks to us now; her voice summons across borders, revealing us secrets of Laos that underscore today's political circumstance: 'I am a refugee. You are too. Cry, but not weep. // We walk out the door.' Mai Der Vang's poems are simultaneously imagistic but straightforward as the speaker 'indexes geography,' and she's not afraid of the magic that can happen when tradition converges with the experimental: 'Every snowflake a small city / Falling on the eyelash.' Afterland proves to us that there isn't any shorthand for passion." --Yusef Komunyakaa " Afterland has haunted me. I keep returning to read these poems aloud, hearing in them a language at once atavistic, contemporary, and profoundly spiritual. Vang confronts the Secret War in Laos, the flight of the Hmong people, and their survival. . . . Here is deep attention, prismatic intelligence, and fearless truth." --Carolyn Forch, "Afterland has haunted me. I keep returning to read these poems aloud, hearing in them a language at once atavistic, contemporary, and profoundly spiritual. Vang confronts the Secret War in Laos, the flight of the Hmong people, and their survival . . . Here is deep attention, prismatic intelligence, and fearless truth." -Carolyn Forché, WINNER OF THE 2016 WALT WHITMAN AWARD OF THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS, SELECTED BY CAROLYN FORCH "I am astounded at how this poet accomplishes these tellings of war, of the Hmong peoples, of escape, exile, of never-leaving, of always-arriving--of retracing the life-particles of the dead in various forms of disappearance and presence. In a language of 'torn jackets' and fruit, of insects and mothers, of humpbacks and shamans, Mai Der Vang comes back at us as the 'carved edge of a claw.' The mastery of image, the leap, the dislodging of our perceptions, fluid as the 'humming of rain against a woman's neck.' A major, almost impossible, groundbreaking collection." --Juan Felipe Herrera, US Poet Laureate "Each poem in Mai Der Vang's Afterland hones a spiritual and social truth as she delivers the lament of her people--the Hmong--in this groundbreaking collection. The poet's ancestors speak to us. But silence also belongs to these telling songs that expose us to the bare evidence of war, and one knows through true feeling exactly what this poet means when she says, 'Ants are spies of the dead.' Afterland speaks to us now; her voice summons across borders, revealing us secrets of Laos that underscore today's political circumstance: 'I am a refugee. You are too. Cry, but not weep. // We walk out the door.' Mai Der Vang's poems are simultaneously imagistic but straightforward as the speaker 'indexes geography,' and she's not afraid of the magic that can happen when tradition converges with the experimental: 'Every snowflake a small city / Falling on the eyelash.' Afterland proves to us that there isn't any shorthand for passion." --Yusef Komunyakaa " Afterland has haunted me. I keep returning to read these poems aloud, hearing in them a language at once atavistic, contemporary, and profoundly spiritual. Vang confronts the Secret War in Laos, the flight of the Hmong people, and their survival. . . . Here is deep attention, prismatic intelligence, and fearless truth." --Carolyn Forch

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal811/.6

SynopsisLonglisted for the National Book Award for Poetry The 2016 winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Carolyn Forché When I make the crossing, you must not be taken no matter what the current gives. When we reach the camp, there will be thousands like us. If I make it onto the plane, you must follow me to the roads and waiting pastures of America. We will not ride the water today on the shoulders of buffalo as we used to many years ago, nor will we forage for the sweetest mangoes. I am refugee. You are too. Cry, but do not weep. --from "Transmigration" Afterland is a powerful, essential collection of poetry that recounts with devastating detail the Hmong exodus from Laos and the fate of thousands of refugees seeking asylum. Mai Der Vang is telling the story of her own family, and by doing so, she also provides an essential history of the Hmong culture's ongoing resilience in exile. Many of these poems are written in the voices of those fleeing unbearable violence after U.S. forces recruited Hmong fighters in Laos in the Secret War against communism, only to abandon them after that war went awry. That history is little known or understood, but the three hundred thousand Hmong now living in the United States are living proof of its aftermath. With poems of extraordinary force and grace, Afterland holds an original place in American poetry and lands with a sense of humanity saved, of outrage, of a deep tradition broken by war and ocean but still intact, remembered, and lived., Longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry The 2016 winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Carolyn Forch When I make the crossing, you must not be taken no matter what the current gives. When we reach the camp, there will be thousands like us. If I make it onto the plane, you must follow me to the roads and waiting pastures of America. We will not ride the water today on the shoulders of buffalo as we used to many years ago, nor will we forage for the sweetest mangoes. I am refugee. You are too. Cry, but do not weep. --from "Transmigration" Afterland is a powerful, essential collection of poetry that recounts with devastating detail the Hmong exodus from Laos and the fate of thousands of refugees seeking asylum. Mai Der Vang is telling the story of her own family, and by doing so, she also provides an essential history of the Hmong culture's ongoing resilience in exile. Many of these poems are written in the voices of those fleeing unbearable violence after U.S. forces recruited Hmong fighters in Laos in the Secret War against communism, only to abandon them after that war went awry. That history is little known or understood, but the three hundred thousand Hmong now living in the United States are living proof of its aftermath. With poems of extraordinary force and grace, Afterland holds an original place in American poetry and lands with a sense of humanity saved, of outrage, of a deep tradition broken by war and ocean but still intact, remembered, and lived.

LC Classification NumberPS3622