Hai-Dang Phan

Reenactments

Linh Dinh

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Edited and translated from the Vietnamese by Linh Dinh. "Carefully selected for their literary significance as well as their antagonism towards state power, cultural orthodoxy and conventional wisdom, the hundred and sixty Vietnamese-language poems annotated, contextualized and expertly translated into English in THE DELUGE provide a stunningly original (counter) history-in-fragments of Vietnamese society from the 1960's up till today. While Linh Dinh is typically known for his extraordinary poetry, fiction and journalism, THE DELUGE showcases his remarkable talents as a translator, anthologist and cultural historian. I love everything about this book: the sneaky-smart selections, the illuminating yet ruthlessly efficient author-bios, the fascinating addendum and, of course, the absurdly brilliant translations." Peter Zinoman "In still-cratered Vietnam, apparently, things are even more screwed up for avant-garde poets than they were in the U.S. back in the 50s. Howl had its trial, but in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, non-conforming poets are just plain denied venues of publication. In fact, a whole generation of poets active in the South before 1975 has pretty much been erased from memory via State controls. At long last, some of them are brought forward here, along with many younger ones, absolute revelations in some cases, all of them examples of cultural courage. Not a little of poetry's history is about singular, strange and moving works getting written under conditions of proscription, censure, samizdat and exile. And there is plenty here of this kind. Ron Silliman is on to something when he keeps insisting the indomitable Linh Dinh should be our next Poet Laureate. Now Dinh's edited what is surely one of the major, startling anthologies to appear in the United States in this new century. Long live the insurgent poets of Vietnam." Kent Johnson"

New Vietnamese Poetry

The Deluge

In Reenactments, poet Hai-Dang Phan explores the history, memory, and legacy of the Vietnam War from his vantage point as a second-generation Vietnamese American. Woven throughout the poems is a narrative of his family’s exodus from Vietnam that beautifully elucidates the American record of immigration, dislocation, inheritance, and ultimately hope. The poems are persuasively varied in their approach. The past and present, the remembered and imagined, all intersect at shifting angles, providing bold new perspectives. And, in a fresh move, Phan widens the lens, interspersing translations of several other contemporary Vietnamese poems to the mix. This subtle and moving debut is an important addition to the literature of immigration.

Hai-Dang Phan

About

Books

Join the club