Violet Energy Ingots

"What our lives permit us to perceive as givens, Nguyen reveals as mere conditions, inextricably tied to and guided by greater forcesfrom the economy to the environment, from the Mayan predictions to the menstrual cycle, from the weight of history to the burden of the future." Michael Brodeur, The Boston Globe

In her first collection since Red Juice: Poems 1998-2008, Nguyen returns to poems of dailiness and raw humanity. Her language hops and skips, vivid with color, in turn political, ecological, funny, spiritual, and tender. As grounded in the earth as in the stars, her poems are reminders of the possibilities of contemplation in every space and moment.

A Brief History of War

And what if Jupiter
is your faith

a balloon
but I call you

by the improper
names I'm stained

by the world here
To be brave and endure

the losing To be brave
and be the losing

Luck Brutal

Born in the Mekong Delta and raised in the Washington, DC area, Hoa Nguyen studied Poetics at New College of California in San Francisco. With the poet Dale Smith, Nguyen foundedSkanky Possum, a poetry journal and book imprint in Austin, TX, their home for fourteen years. She is the author of several poetry collections, most recentlyRed Juice: Poems 1998-2008 and As Long as Trees Last. She lives in Toronto, Ontario where she curates a reading series and teaches poetics privately and at Ryerson University.