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Ensō
Poetry. Hybrid Genre. Asian & Asian American Studies. Performance Studies. Music. Women's Studies. It is fitting that we'd present a hybrid book and digital experience for Shin Yu Pai, a poet known for her wide-ranging collaborations and creative practice engaged as much in physical space as a moment on the page. With its blend of personal essays reflecting on the development of her poetics, ENS? places new work next to old, to create not only a mid-career retrospective, but a guidebook for poets interested in moving their practice off the page and into the community.
From her early work in place-based and ekphrastic poetry and her explorations of bookmaking, to her current experimentation with installation and projection, this book highlights the creative process to her poetry. The reader learns more about Ms. Pai's influences--the identities that resonate for her--and her thoughts on cultural hybridity, exchange and appropriation. She speaks deeply of how motherhood transformed her views of what is possible in poetry, reconnecting to her immigrant mother's creative legacy, and how that pushed her ideas to better inhabit the world around us. She gives moving examples of how personal and systematic racism and misogyny have shaped her practice, while inviting the reader into a deeper conversation about how a poet writes with and about their community. As a book interested in process, we have included within ENS? a second book of Ms. Pai's haiku in her discussion of haiku practice. As with all of our books, we include a wide range of audio projects and readings related to the book. We also include two video animations discussed in the book, "Heyday" and "Puget Sound Driftwood Circle."
From her early work in place-based and ekphrastic poetry and her explorations of bookmaking, to her current experimentation with installation and projection, this book highlights the creative process to her poetry. The reader learns more about Ms. Pai's influences--the identities that resonate for her--and her thoughts on cultural hybridity, exchange and appropriation. She speaks deeply of how motherhood transformed her views of what is possible in poetry, reconnecting to her immigrant mother's creative legacy, and how that pushed her ideas to better inhabit the world around us. She gives moving examples of how personal and systematic racism and misogyny have shaped her practice, while inviting the reader into a deeper conversation about how a poet writes with and about their community. As a book interested in process, we have included within ENS? a second book of Ms. Pai's haiku in her discussion of haiku practice. As with all of our books, we include a wide range of audio projects and readings related to the book. We also include two video animations discussed in the book, "Heyday" and "Puget Sound Driftwood Circle."
- GenresPoetry
160 pages, Hardcover
Published March 17, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 27, 2023
One of the most pleasurable ways to read is to feel you are in conversation with the author. In Ensō, I had this very rare, very special experience.
I'd bought the book at AWP because Pai is a local author, because the book looked beautiful, and because I thought I could share it with my artist husband. In reading it, though, I found the types of synchronicities you feel with an old friend. Pai is around my age, has a background in visual arts, enjoys experimenting with form, has a child two years older than mine, and is making her way as a writer in this city. As I contemplated harvesting our apples, I read about her trip to an orchard we've frequented. As I looked over her "Same Cloth," I thought of the canvases I once embroidered. And in reading lines like "money paid to you for what you gave up / in yourself to be a part of that world," I found Pai named something in me that I've been thinking deeply about.
It's a beautiful book (visually and writing-wise) and I very much enjoyed learning about Pai's process, especially because she writes so openly that it's easy to take each page as a beginning.
I'd bought the book at AWP because Pai is a local author, because the book looked beautiful, and because I thought I could share it with my artist husband. In reading it, though, I found the types of synchronicities you feel with an old friend. Pai is around my age, has a background in visual arts, enjoys experimenting with form, has a child two years older than mine, and is making her way as a writer in this city. As I contemplated harvesting our apples, I read about her trip to an orchard we've frequented. As I looked over her "Same Cloth," I thought of the canvases I once embroidered. And in reading lines like "money paid to you for what you gave up / in yourself to be a part of that world," I found Pai named something in me that I've been thinking deeply about.
It's a beautiful book (visually and writing-wise) and I very much enjoyed learning about Pai's process, especially because she writes so openly that it's easy to take each page as a beginning.
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October 24, 2020gonna learn how to make chlorophyll prints now
December 1, 2020
A gorgeous production to complement the elegant poise of Shin Yu Pai's writing. The variety of creative modalities to bring her poetry—earthy, historical, grounded, soulful, calm, tactile—into the visual world, is made more striking by reading her essays which explain her processes, musings, inspiration, and emotions behind her choices. Highly recommended.
January 1, 2020
An outstanding and astounding collection of reflections on the artist's life. Considers how we relate to objects, space, and humans (including ourselves) and where we might influence systems to support our identities and beliefs.
March 19, 2021
This is a staggering work of profundity. A life, many lives, an art, many arts, coming together and staying distinct, speaking in their varied voices.
"you are the energy
that breaks from
building wax houses"
"in lieu of the art historical,
the imagination recomposes
the scene,"
"you are the energy
that breaks from
building wax houses"
"in lieu of the art historical,
the imagination recomposes
the scene,"
Read
January 6, 2021Beautiful poems, photos, art in general -- proud to know author..!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews