Return Flight

by Jennifer Huang

Selected by Jos Charles as the winner of the 2021 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, Return Flight is a lush reckoning: with inheritance, with body, with trauma, with desire―and with the many tendons in between.

When Return Flight asks “what name / do you crown yourself,” Huang answers with many. Textured with mountains―a folkloric goddess-prison, Yushan, mother, men, self―and peppered with shapeshifting creatures, spirits, and gods, the landscape of Jennifer Huang’s poems is at once mystical and fleshy, a “myth a mess of myself.” Sensuously, Huang depicts each of these not as things to claim but as topographies to behold and hold.

Here, too, is another kind of mythology. Set to the music of “beating hearts / through objects passed down,” the poems travel through generations―among Taiwan, China, and America―cataloging familial wounds and beloved stories. A grandfather’s smile shining through rain, baby bok choy in a child’s bowl, a slap felt decades later―the result is a map of a present-day life, reflected through the past.

Return Flight is a thrumming debut that teaches us how history harrows and heals, often with the same hand; how touch can mean “purple” and “blue” as much as it means intimacy; and how one might find a path toward joy not by leaving the past in the past, but by “[keeping a] hand on these memories, / to feel them to their ends.”

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Womens

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 2022

Reviews

[Amy Imogene Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this volume randomly in a local independent bookshop—a precious gift, the role of indie shops in a reader’s ability for raw discovery—and was taken aback by this collection.

Contextualizing a Taiwanese-American upbringing, questions of family and generational baggage, and sense of self, return flight both resonated deeply with me and went over my head. I greatly appreciated the notes at the end—they explained some histories and cultural concepts that helped me appreciate some of the poems more deeply.

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[Alan (aka The Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry in Flight
Review of the Milkweed Editions paperback (January 2022)

How to Love a Rock

Notice the maroon cirrus clouds against
the gray of her landscape, then each white spot—
stars that propel you into space. Express
what you see in her, how you love the way

she smells like grass and salt. Ask about her
properties, history, how she was picked
from the glacial waters of Lake Crescent
and brought across the land to be placed

in your palms. Ask to feel her smooth. Caress
till your thumb can find a home in her brook.
Be with her and share your day, how you jumped
into a river, came out ice. How you

worry now, let it go. Give her space to
say not words; then, when she’s ready, many.

There was much joy in life, nature, food and family to love in this first collection by American poet Jennifer Huang who is on Taiwanese heritage. Several of the poems relate to her travels to Taiwan to understand her roots and these had the greatest resonance for me due to my own 'child of immigrants' background. But the nature poems about walks, rocks, creeks and those of the appreciation of food and taste such as Notes on Orange and song of chou doufu all had unique perspectives which sang with their own beauty.

There is a generous 5 page series of Notes on the poems giving the background on the Taiwanese and/or Chinese cultural references. Return Flight was the 10th winner of the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, previously the Lindquist and Vennum Prize for Poetry, established in 2011.


Staff Pick blurb for 'Return Flight' from Shakespeare and Company, Paris. Image sourced from Twitter.

I read Return Flight through its inclusion in the 2022 Year of Reading subscription from the English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France.

[Annesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are so lucky to have this author with us. These poems are luminous, giving respect and time to the small aches and large pains and infinite beauties in life, connecting the history of Taiwan with the history of having a body, capturing moments no one else could articulate.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

RETURN FLIGHT by Jennifer Huang is an astounding poetry book! I loved these poems! I loved the raw vulnerability within the topics of their Taiwanese heritage, Chinese folk religion, the body and family. I really enjoyed the structure of this collection as we go on a journey with multiple departures and even a layover. My fave poems are Fantasy Self-Erasure, From the Taiwan Cypress in Alishan and Zuihitsu for Yushan. I appreciated the notes at the end of this book that gives more context for some of the poems. I know I will be returning to Return Flight! Loved it!
.
Congrats to Jennifer for winning the 2021 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry! And I love the cover art by Maria Medem!
.
Thank you to Milkweed Editions for my uncorrected proof!

[naviya]

- some favorite poems: customs, fantasy self-erasure, notes on orange, tanka, song of choufu dofu, zuihitsu for yushan
- also the cover is really pretty!!

[Rose Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shakespeare and Company Year of Reading, October pick.

I wanted to like this more than I did - especially given the author is both Taiwanese-American and non-binary - but for the most part this collection just didn't land for me. Dommage.

[julie | eggmama]

Favorites:
- Departure (I)
- Individualism
- A Visit from Brother Ghost on the Harvest Moon
- Pleasure Practice

I like the poems where they talk about their family and father best!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I want to feel all of me / realize what is, what is; / my body, in existence; enough."

Recommended poems: "Individualism," "The Creek," and "Layover"

[eris · Rating 4 out of 5]

stunning stunning stunning! so many thoughts about identity, bodies, and how we choose to name love! 4.7

full review here: https://cuinthemargins.wixsite.com/my...

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several extremely good poems in here, highly relatable. Reading this made me wonder what it is about being obsessed with finding a comfortable space to inhabit, the discomfort of owing our parents so much even when the parenting has been less than stellar. Is this strictly an immigrant narrative? A universal one? I read on.

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emily Jungmin Yoon writes that "Jennifer Huang's Return Flight feels like a conversation and journey at once. It is a charismatic debut collection..." I agree. These poems are steady and strong, but not overbearing. The poet writes as if talking to the reader in a personal way. Positive and recommended.

[jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am just that: a human that wants to be closer to God
so you could love me as you've // always imagined

v sweet library find and got to read it outside on a bench today :) documenting that soft glow joy

i was not so taken by the language // it felt fairly rounded and direct but many good moments and a v gorgeous cover. gratitude :)))))))))))

[Melissa Helton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed to flip back and forth to the notes, which isn't a problem, but it wasn't as easy on e-book form. Beautiful poems. The forms were varied and interesting. As a child of immigration, I felt connected to the speaker, even though we span different cultures.

[Varun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deft, daring, and brilliantly original. Jennifer Huang’s voice is strong, yet Carrie’s within it all the complexities and tenderness of love, the scars of the past but with a glint of optimism. I loved this journey that Huang took me on. A must read for poetry lovers.

[Amie Whittemore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huang's book is quite beautiful, exploring identity and desire and the haunting feeling of home-seeking. Furthermore, it is formally astute, trying out different structural moves as it roves over layovers and departures, as it seeks to make sense of the repetition of life. A truly wonderful debut.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

💕💕💕

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

some poems hit really hard for me, others less so. shoutout to stinky tofu (that shit is good)

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the poem "Customs". And I enjoyed all the mythology in this collection.

[Hannah]

Lots that’s good but I absolutely loved How to Love a Rock and also the acknowledgements

[Sara Shocks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: "Disaster," "Notes on Orange," "Procedure," "228," "From the Taiwan Cypress in Alishan," "Among a s'ea of clouds," "On Days I Stay With My Father"

[Sravanireddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another fantastic book of my 2023 reading journey, she wrote everything very real,the way she adopted poems from her life is ethereal, reading this poetry collection is like a gift from mountains, yeah it’s very positively great poetry book.

[dayi novas · Rating 3 out of 5]

silky smooth mournful poetry - "Ode to Orange," "From the Taiwan Cypress in Alishan," and "Poem for Giving Birth" were my favorites.

[frog · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Alyssa Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first experience reading Jennifer Huang's writing, and while I appreciated the style and formatting of her works, I couldn't connect to the poems as I have with others. Return Flight is incredibly personal to the author's life and herself, but it just wasn't for me.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed these poems.