By Ching-ln Chen (Arktoi Press)

Ching-ln Chen's passionate debut is an impressive collection of poems indeed. Through a blend of voices and rhythms, this novel in poems tells us of the life and travels of Xiaomei, a young immigrant girl who is discovering her sexuality and history. Chen's arresting playfulness with imagery draws the reader into Xlaomei's world: "Xiaomei and Sparrow, two girls on the horizon,/ between burning sun and the pitchsong of dark blood,/ hover in hard breath,/ weaving thick air sticky as new-year sweet rice." A former community activist (and frequent Hyphen contributor), Chen uses her inventiveness with forms to limn the political without succumbing to heavy-handedness, as In "The Geisha Author Interviews" (a collage poem based on found interviews with the author of Memoirs of a Geisha as well as the woman that the book was based on) and in her Imagined poem-letters ("Letter From My Former Mortal Enemy" and "Letter to the Former Bully"). This Is a richly complex, satisfying book that readers will hunger to read over and over again. - Maiaina Minahal