Replica

Stand-up comedy, a celebrity non-apology, observations of racism, and the slipperiness of nostalgia underpin Replica. In poignant, witty poems, Lisa Low navigates the tensions of solidarity and hostility in white spaces as she sets out to write differently about race.

“The problem of being with a white man is also a problem of writing,” Low states in a prose poem that turns writing about identity on its head. She peers in from the outside, as if through an open ceiling: “Like any good girl, / I became good / at watching myself.” The poem itself becomes a site of investigation, reimagined as a dollhouse, a stage with props, an image the speaker wears like a bodysuit. These powerful and direct poems offer a counterpoint to constricting narratives about Asian American identity.

Sure to appeal to readers of Monica Youn and Claudia Rankine, Replica asks what it means to represent yourself and your experiences in a world where you are indistinguishable from others.