What I Like About Asian-American Poetry: The Next Generation
You see what happens when you let a little blogging-power get to your head. :) I got so worked up lambasting Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation that I didn't even talk about what I like about it and the positives of the anthology. Sorry. Here goes:
1. I've got to give props to the editor for undertaking the enterprise of putting together what I believe is the first "Asian American poetry" anthology since Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian American Poetry (1995). A bold and daring act that deserves praise.
2. There was a nice distribution of Asian-American ethnicities. Not something like 27 Chinese-American poets and 2 "others." In the sense of constituting an even demographic distribution, it is a genuine "Asian American poetry" anthology.
3. As the editor notes, the anthology contains a relatively high number of biracial and multiracial Asian American poets. Just personally, I really like that move towards inclusivity.
4. I enjoyed a lot of the individual poems in this anthology. As I touched upon in one of my comments, I haven't talked about individual poets/poems both because (a) it would have made the blog entry too long, (b) I liked different poems in varying ways and to different degrees, and (c) I'll quite possibly talk about individual works more in the future in-depth on this blog.
5. I'm happy for the greater exposure for Asian-American poetry. As I've mentioned before, I definitely think that the anthology should be used in classrooms, and I want it to sell well. I'm hoping that my talking about it here will stir sales and/or inspire people to check out the book in librairies. My opinions could be totally off-base, you know. So you've got to check it out for yourself. Sales and exposure for Asian-American poetry is another one of those issues that I want to discuss more in-depth in the future.
6. I referred to this anthology as "my inspiration." I wasn't being totally ironic there. It excited my intellect to an extent that very few books of poetry have ever done.
And no, I'm not unaware that there is life outside of Asian-American poetry. You won't see much of it here on this blog. But that's ok. I know that you're not here to read my views on emperor penguins.
1. I've got to give props to the editor for undertaking the enterprise of putting together what I believe is the first "Asian American poetry" anthology since Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian American Poetry (1995). A bold and daring act that deserves praise.
2. There was a nice distribution of Asian-American ethnicities. Not something like 27 Chinese-American poets and 2 "others." In the sense of constituting an even demographic distribution, it is a genuine "Asian American poetry" anthology.
3. As the editor notes, the anthology contains a relatively high number of biracial and multiracial Asian American poets. Just personally, I really like that move towards inclusivity.
4. I enjoyed a lot of the individual poems in this anthology. As I touched upon in one of my comments, I haven't talked about individual poets/poems both because (a) it would have made the blog entry too long, (b) I liked different poems in varying ways and to different degrees, and (c) I'll quite possibly talk about individual works more in the future in-depth on this blog.
5. I'm happy for the greater exposure for Asian-American poetry. As I've mentioned before, I definitely think that the anthology should be used in classrooms, and I want it to sell well. I'm hoping that my talking about it here will stir sales and/or inspire people to check out the book in librairies. My opinions could be totally off-base, you know. So you've got to check it out for yourself. Sales and exposure for Asian-American poetry is another one of those issues that I want to discuss more in-depth in the future.
6. I referred to this anthology as "my inspiration." I wasn't being totally ironic there. It excited my intellect to an extent that very few books of poetry have ever done.
And no, I'm not unaware that there is life outside of Asian-American poetry. You won't see much of it here on this blog. But that's ok. I know that you're not here to read my views on emperor penguins.
posted by Roger Pao at 1:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home