An explosive, devastating debut poetry book from the winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem is an urgent, unsettling reckoning with identity – and the violence of identity. For Le, a Vietnamese refugee in the West, this means the assumed violence of racism, oppression and historical trauma.But it also means the violence of that assumption. Of being always assumed to be outside one’s home, country, culture or language. ...

The seven stories in Nam Le's masterful collection take us across the globe, guiding us to the heart of what it means to be human. From the slums of Colombia to Iowa City and from the streets of Tehran to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea, here are thrilling versatile tales that herald the arrival of a remarkable new writer.

An explosive, devastating debut book of poetry from the acclaimed author of The BoatIn his first international release since the award-winning, best-selling The Boat, Nam Le delivers a shot across the bow with a book-length poem that honors every convention of diasporic literature—in a virtuosic array of forms and registers—before shattering the form itself.In line with the works of Claudia Rankine, Cathy Park Hong, and Theresa Hak Kyung C...

Here was a very-much-alive half-Lebanese writer (from provincial Brisbane, no less) producing English-language writing of the very first order … The poetry was in the prose; it stayed and sprung its rhythms, chorded its ideas, concentrated its images. Every other novel claims to be written in “poetic prose”; the real thing, when you come across it, is actually shocking.Nam Le takes the reader on a thrilling intellectual ride in this sharp, bold essay. Encompassing identity...

A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” SelectionThey call it an office job—being a sicario, a hit man—because the sicario is always waiting by the phone. In Medellín, Colombia, there’s always one more job to do. Juan Pablo Merendez is a young sicario just trying to get by, but when he’s summoned to meet his shadowy boss for the first time, all he wants is out—to Cartagena.“Cartagena” is a heart-pounding, urgent story of violence, unbreakable bonds, ...

In this dazzling collection, Nam Le takes us across the globe as he enters the hearts and minds of characters from all over the world. Whether it's the story of fourteen-year-old Juan, a hit man in Colombia; an ageing painter in New York mourning the death of his much-younger lover; or a young refugee fleeing Vietnam, crammed in the ship's hold with two hundred others, the result is unexpectedly moving and powerful.This is an extraordinary work of fiction that takes us to the heart...

An explosive, devastating debut book of poetry from the acclaimed author of The BoatIn his first international release since the award-winning, best-selling The Boat, Nam Le delivers a shot across the bow with a book-length poem that honors every convention of diasporic literature—in a virtuosic array of forms and registers—before shattering the form itself.In line with the works of Claudia Rankine, Cathy Park Hong, and Theresa Hak Kyung C...

Indonesian Ferry Sinks. Peruvian Bus Plunges Off Cliff. African Train Attacked by Mobs.Whenever he picked up the newspaper, Carl Hoffman noticed those short news bulletins, which seemed about as far from the idea of tourism, travel as the pursuit of pleasure, as it was possible to get. So off he went, spending six months circumnavigating the globe on the world's worst conveyances: the statistically most dangerous airlines, the most crowded and dangerous ferries, th...

Tommy Phan is a 30-year-old Vietnamese-American detective and novelist living in Southern California, and a chaser of the American Dream. He drives home his brand-new Corvette one day to discover a strange doll on his doorstep. It's a rag doll made entirely of white cloth, with no face or hair or clothes. Where the eyes should be, there are two crossed stitches of black thread. Five sets of crossed black stitches mark the mouth, and another pair form an X over the heart.He brings i...

WINNER OF THE BBC NATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD 2017Out at sea, in a sudden storm, a man is struck by lightning. When he wakes, injured and adrift on a kayak, his memory of who he is and how he came to be there is all but shattered. Now he must pit himself against the pain and rely on his instincts to get back to shore, and to the woman he dimly senses waiting for his return. With its taut narrative and its wincingly visceral portrait of a man locked in an uneven stru...

"It is impossible for me to write about the imagination; it is like asking a fish to describe the sea," Mary Ruefle announces at the start of her essay. With wit and intellectual abandon, Ruefle draws inspiration from Wittgenstein, Shakespeare, Jesus, Steve Jobs, Johnny Cash, and Emily Dickson to explore her subject. The chapbook features original interior illustrations.Mary Ruefle is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and prose, including Madness, Rack, ...

Body language is an important part of communication - here is information about how to use it.