Franny Choi

Choi pairs complex pain with striking images, wrapping readers in mystical interpretations and then captures them within reality.

Soft Science

From acclaimed and beloved poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds--past, present, and future. Choi's third book features poems about historical and impending apocalypses, alongside musings on our responsibilities to each other and visions for our collective survival. Many have called the last years dystopic. But The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On reminds us that apocalypse has already come in myriad ways for marginalized peoples, and calls forth the importance of imagining what will persist in the aftermaths. With lyric and tonal dexterity, these poems spin backwards and forwards in time. They look into the collective psyche of our years in the pandemic and in the throes of anti-racist uprisings, while imagining other vectors, directions, and futures. Stories of survival collide across space and time--from comfort women during the Korean War to children wandering a museum in the future. These poems explore narrative distances and queer linearity, investigating on microscopic scales before soaring towards the universal. Throughout, Choi grapples with where the individual can fit within the strange landscapes of this apocalyptic world, with its violent and many-layered histories. In the process, she imagines what togetherness--between Black and Asian and other marginalized communities, between living organisms, between children of calamity and conquest--could look like. In The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, old and new stories are put through a collider; what emerges is pure sonic energy, grounded by the complex entanglements that connect us all. The combination of the speculative imagination, playfulness, and wisdom in these poems ultimately chart new paths toward hope.

The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

In her electrifying debut, Franny Choi leads readers through the complex landscapes of absence, memory, and identity. Beginning in loss and ending in reflective elation, Floating, Brilliant, Gone explores life as a brief impossibility, "infinite / until it isn't.” Punctuated with haunting illustrations by Jess X. Chen, Choi's poems read like lucid dreams that jolt awake at the most unexpected moments.

Floating, Brilliant, Gone

"The girl I was ten years ago has not yet read this gorgeous, important work, but the future is closer than she thinks, and besides, this is a book that can sing through the years. You, too, need this book. When the future might feel simply cold, Franny Choi gifts us complex fire." - Lo Kwa Mei-En, author of The Bees Make Money in the Lion

Death by Sex Machine

Named A Most Anticipated Book by: LitHub * Vulture * Time * A PW 2022 Holiday Gift Pick One of: Time's "100 Must-Read Books of 2022" * NPR's 2022 "Books We Love" Vulture's "10 Best Books of 2022" A Goodreads Readers Choice Award Semifinalist From acclaimed poet Franny Choi comes a poetry collection for the ends of worlds—past, present, and future. Choi’s third book features poems about historical and impending apocalypses, alongside musings on our responsibilities to each other and visions for our collective survival. Many have called our time dystopian. But The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On reminds us that apocalypse has already come in myriad ways for marginalized peoples. With lyric and tonal dexterity, these poems spin backwards and forwards in time--from Korean comfort women during World War II, to the precipice of climate crisis, to children wandering a museum in the future. These poems explore narrative distances and queer linearity, investigating on microscopic scales before soaring towards the universal. As she wrestles with the daily griefs and distances of this apocalyptic world, Choi also imagines what togetherness--between Black and Asian and other marginalized communities, between living organisms, between children of calamity and conquest--could look like. Bringing together Choi's signature speculative imagination with even greater musicality than her previous work, The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On ultimately charts new paths toward hope in the aftermaths, and visions for our collective survival.

Hanif Abdurraqib

Peter Kahn

Dan Sully Sullivan

An expansive, moving poetry anthology, representing 20 years of poetry from students and alumni of Chicago's Oak Park River Forest High School Spoken Word Club. "Poets I know sometimes joke that the poetry club at Oak Park River Forest High School is the best MFA program in the Chicagoland area. Like all great jokes, this one is dead serious." -Eve L. Ewing, award-winning poet, playwright, scholar, and sociologist For Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School's Spoken Word Club, there is one phrase that reigns supreme: Respect the Mic. It's been the club's call to arms since its inception in 1999. As its founder Peter Kahn says, "It's a call of pride and history and tradition and hope." This vivid new collection of poetry and prose -- curated by award-winning and bestselling poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Peter Kahn, and Dan "Sully" Sullivan -- illuminates just that, uplifting the incredible legacy this community has cultivated. Among the dozens of current students and alumni, Respect the Mic features work by NBA star Iman Shumpert, National Youth Poet Laureates Kara Jackson and Natalie Richardson, comedian Langston Kerman, and more. In its pages, you hear the sprawling echoes of students, siblings, lovers, new parents, athletes, entertainers, scientists, and more --all sharing a deep appreciation for the power of storytelling. A celebration of the past, a balm for the present, and a blueprint for the future, Respect the Mic offers a tender, intimate portrait of American life, and conveys how in a world increasingly defined by separation, poetry has the capacity to bind us together.

Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School

Respect the Mic

Bhanu Kapil

Jihyun Yun

Larissa Lai

Hala Alyan

Victoria Chang

Monica Sok

Devi Laskar

Karen An-hwei Lee

Sun Yung Shin

Marilyn Chin

Ryka Aoki

Diana Khoi Nguyen

Jane Wong

Nancy Chen Long

Eileen Tabios

Carlina Duan

Michelle Lee

Doyali Islam

Jessica Abughattas

Dena Igusti

Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello

Paul Tran

Cynthia Dewi Oka

Mary-Kim Arnold

Mia Ayumi Malhotra

Maw Shein Win

Do Nguyen Mai

Shazia Hafiz Ramji

Su Cho

Jenna Le

Su Fang Ng

Isabella Wang

Amy Lam

Angie Sijun Lou

Nellie Wong

Torsa Ghosal

Kailee Pedersen

Manahil Bandukwala

Allison Albino

Sarah Audsley

Hajjar Baban

Maria Isabelle Carlos

Catherine Chen

Jennifer Cheng

Debra Kang Dean

Anuja Ghimire

Kate Hao

Mai-Linh Hong

C. X. Hua

Resi Ibanez

Ann Inoshita

Maya Khosla

Maddie Kim

Juliet Kono

Hyejung Kook

Iria Law

Mari L 'Esperance

Pacyinz Lyfoung

Meher Manda

Aurora Masum-Javed

Lani Montreal

Amy Patel

Yamini Pathak

Michelle Penaloza

Angela Penaredondo

Megan Pinto

Preeti Kaur Rajpal

Swati Rana

Karen Rigby

Raena Shirali

C. E. Shue

Kristen Sze-Tu

Lehua Taitano

Alaisha Verdeflor

Kara Kai Wang

Annette Wong

Shelly Wong

Jessica Yuan

They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets is a collection of hundreds of contemporary poems by both established and emerging Asian American Women Poets.

An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets

They Rise Like a Wave

Dan "Sully" Sullivan

An expansive, moving poetry anthology, representing 20 years of poetry from students and alumni of Chicago's Oak Park River Forest High School Spoken Word Club. "Poets I know sometimes joke that the poetry club at Oak Park River Forest High School is the best MFA program in the Chicagoland area. Like all great jokes, this one is dead serious." -Eve L. Ewing, award-winning poet, playwright, scholar, and sociologist For Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School's Spoken Word Club, there is one phrase that reigns supreme: Respect the Mic. It's been the club's call to arms since its inception in 1999. As its founder Peter Kahn says, "It's a call of pride and history and tradition and hope." This vivid new collection of poetry and prose -- curated by award-winning and bestselling poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Peter Kahn, and Dan "Sully" Sullivan -- illuminates just that, uplifting the incredible legacy this community has cultivated. Among the dozens of current students and alumni, Respect the Mic features work by NBA champion Iman Shumpert, National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson, National Youth Poet Laureate Kara Jackson, National Student Poet Natalie Richardson, comedian Langston Kerman, and more. In its pages, you hear the sprawling echoes of students, siblings, lovers, new parents, athletes, entertainers, scientists, and more --all sharing a deep appreciation for the power of storytelling. A celebration of the past, a balm for the present, and a blueprint for the future, Respect the Mic offers a tender, intimate portrait of American life, and conveys how in a world increasingly defined by separation, poetry has the capacity to bind us together.

Franny Choi

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