Genghis Chan on Drums

Name: Genghis Chan on Drums
Brand: Unknown
SKU: 9781632431004
Price: 33.99 NZD
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By John Yau

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Summary

Genghis Chan on Drums is a diverse and cacophonous poetry collection by John Yau that explores themes from identity to contemporary events. The book blends comic and cantankerous tones with tenderness and irreverence, navigating subjects such as aging, PC culture, and Chinese stereotypes. Yau's poems employ various forms and range from reflections on historical and literary figures to commentary on current social crises, creating a shape-shifting body of work.
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Format: Paperback / softback

$33⁹⁹

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Genghis Chan on Drums

$33⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in contemporary poetry that challenges social norms and explores cultural identity, as well as those who appreciate innovative poetic forms and incisive social commentary.

Description

A diverse and cacophonous poetry collection tackling subjects from identity to current events.

At once comic and cantankerous, tender and discomfiting, piercing and irreverent, Genghis Chan on Drums is a shape-shifting book of percussive poems dealing with aging, identity, PC culture, and stereotypes about being Chinese. Employing various forms, John Yau’s poems traverse a range of subjects, including the 1930s Hollywood actress Carole Lombard, the Latin poet Catullus, the fantastical Renaissance painter Piero di Cosimo’s imaginary sister, and a nameless gumshoe.

Yau moves effortlessly from using the rhyme scheme of a sixteenth-century Edmund Spenser sonnet to riffing on a well-known poem-rant by the English poet Sean Bonney, and to immersing himself in the words of condolence sent by a former president to the survivors of a school massacre. Yau’s poems are conduits through which many different, conflicting, and unsavory voices strive to be heard.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Publishers Weekly heralds the collection as "brilliant," noting its social critique and linguistic play, and describes these poems as "necessary" in their testimony to language's transformative power. The book was also listed among the Top 10 Poetry Books for Fall 2021 by Publishers Weekly for its engagement with history, identity, and societal issues. On the Seawall praises Yau as a "prolific and adventurous poet" offering profound reflections, and reviewers note the book's razor-sharp insight into cultural and personal complexities.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781632431004

Publisher: Omnidawn Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 06 October 2021

Country: United States

Imprint: Omnidawn Publishing

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 11.0mm

Width: 153.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 258g

Pages: 152

Collections

Arts & Culture John Yau Non-Fiction Poetry

About the Author

John Yau is a poet, art critic, fiction writer, and publisher whose recent books include Foreign Sounds or Sounds Foreign and Bijoux in the Dark. He founded Black Square Editions and cofounded the online magazine Hyperallergic Weekend. He has received awards and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment of the Arts, and Academy of American Poets, among others. He teaches at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and lives in New York.

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