As always, it’s hard to narrow down the field to just a few poets. Impossible, really. To narrow the field, I’ve gone with very recently released poetry collections. Hopefully that means you won’t have had a chance to read them yet either. That being said, there’s always room for older collections! If you’re interested in Indigenous Pacific poetry but aren’t familiar with any specific names, Mauri Ola is a great place to start. Of course, you can always pick up books like Brandy Nālani McDougall’s amazing work entitled The Salt-Wind or Emelihter Kihleng’s stunning collection called My Urohs. And, of course, I’m always a fan of Craig Santos Perez’s inventive and thought-provoking poetry; Habitat Threshold is his most recent poetry book, but he also published a critical work this year called Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization that’s really worth checking out. Likewise, many Asian American poets have collections that are readily available for your perusal. Barbara Jane Reyes is one of my personal faves and it just so happens that she recently released a work of creative nonfiction called Wanna Peek Into My Notebook?: Notes on Pinay Liminality that I’m positively drooling over. In a similar vein, poet Aimee Nexhukumatathil’s World of Wonders blends nature writing, memoir, and cultural criticism for an unforgettably poetic prose read. And guess what? The brilliant Franny Choi has a new poetry collection called The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On that’s currently slated for release this coming November, so keep your eyes out for that one! But you didn’t come here for a list, did you? You came here to take a quiz! So without further ado, answer a few questions and you’ll get a recommendation tailored to your responses. And I promise, there’s no double-dipping here! None of the recommendations you’ll get from this quiz are works I named above. Happy quizzing to you!
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There are so many brilliant Asian American and Indigenous Pacific writers out there! Check out some of my other suggestions for poetry by Asian American writers or Indigenous poets you should know. This list of 24 award-winning books of poetry is another fabulous resource! If you’re specifically looking for works by AAPI writers and are willing to branch out from poetry, consider the names on this list of 25 AAPI authors to get you started.
