Victoria Chang writes with urgency and visual power, frequently engaging with the complex themes of family, memory, and identity. Her poetry probes the vulnerability of human existence with a unique blend of introspection and universal resonance. Chang adeptly weaves together the intimate and the epic, offering readers a literary experience that is profoundly moving and intellectually stimulating. Her language is precise and evocative, establishing her as a significant voice in contemporary poetry.
Victoria Chang's poetry revives and transforms various literary forms, showcasing her innovative approach to language and expression. Her work engages deeply with themes of identity, memory, and the passage of time, inviting readers to explore the nuances of human experience through her unique voice. Chang's ability to blend the personal with the universal makes her poetry resonate on multiple levels, reflecting a profound understanding of the complexities of life.
The breakout collection about grief, loss and living from award-winning Asian American poet Victoria Chang, whose star is rising.
A lover of strict form, best-selling poet Victoria Chang turns to compact Japanese waka, powerfully innovating on tradition while continuing her pursuit of one of life's hardest questions: how to let go. In The Trees Witness Everything, Victoria Chang reinvigorates language by way of concentration, using constraint to illuminate and free the wild interior. Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called 'wakas,' each poem is shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets including W.S. Merwin, whose poem titles are repurposed as frames and mirrors for the text, stitching past and present in complex dialogue. Chang depicts the smooth, melancholic isolation of the mind while reaching outward to name - with reverence, economy and whimsy - the ache of wanting, the hawk and its shadow, our human urge to hide the minute beneath the light.
In this beautiful novel in verse, a Taiwanese-American girl tries to solve the mystery of her sister's strange illness.
A new collection of poetry inspired by the work of Agnes Martin, exploring topics of feminism, art, depression, and grief, by the author of the prizewinning collection Obit. The collection also includes some of Victoria's original art.