The World I Leave You:
Asian American Poets on Faith & SpiritEdited by Leah Silvieus & Lee Herrick
paper / 274 pp. / $18.00
Orison Books
ISBN: 978-1-949039-05-4
Distributed to the trade by Itasca Books
1-800-901-3480 / orders@itascabooks.com
Publication Date: May 5, 2020
ABOUT THE BOOK
The first anthology of its kind, The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit spotlights poets of Asian descent, representing many cultures and religious traditions, including Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. Among these poets are active religious practitioners, recent converts, and those who do not follow a religious tradition but practice a personal devotion in the negative space of the unknown. The 62 poets included here create a varied and nuanced portrait of today’s Asian American poets and their spiritual engagements.
PRAISE
An anthology that should become a mainstay of poetry classrooms.
—The Millions
[O]ne of the most exciting poetry anthologies to arrive this season. [...] It is as Silvieus and Herrick say: the poems in this anthology are also miraculous "artifacts to be explored, contemplated, and savored as gifts.”
—Luisa A. Igloria, Rhino Poetry
The poems of The World I Leave You deal with the inheritance of religion and culture, grapple with the politicization of Asian American identities, and weave spiritual experiences into personal, familial and national memories. [...] [This] anthology...puts faith and spirit in what I hope is an emerging and growing dialogue with the Asian American reader.
—Cathy Duong, Hyphen Magazine
Whether read by those who identify within the Asian American diaspora or otherwise, The World I Leave You offers many entry points into geography and history, into faith and spirit, and into language and poetry. The voices here are multifaceted yet interconnected, portraying an ever-expanding world into which readers are invited.
—Julie Wan, EcoTheo Review
CONTRIBUTORS
Neil Aitken
Kaveh Akbar
Kazim Ali
Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello
Marianne Chan
K-Ming Chang
Tina Chang
Jennifer S. Cheng
Wendy Chin-Tanner
Rachelle Cruz
Christian Detisch
Oliver de la Paz
Duy Doan
Christy NaMee Erickson
Tarfia Faizullah
Sarah Gambito
Kathleen Hellen
Leslieann Hobayan
Su Hwang
W. Todd Kaneko
Debra Kang Dean
Vandana Khanna
Hei Kyong Kim
Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley
E. J. Koh
Hyejung Kook
Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
Ed Bok Lee
Li-Young Lee
Joseph O. Legaspi
Eugenia Leigh
Kenji C. Liu
Timothy Liu
Shireen Madon
Mia Ayumi Malhotra
Vikas Menon
Rajiv Mohabir
Faisal Mohyuddin
Feliz Lucia Molina
Sahar Muradi
Shankar Narayan
Matthew Olzmann
Shin Yu Pai
Michelle Peñaloza
Preeti Kaur Rajpal
Barbara Jane Reyes
Karen Rigby
Brynn Saito
Craig Santos Perez
Vijay Seshadri
Purvi Shah
Sun Yung Shin
Monica Sok
Sofia M. Starnes
Eileen Tabios
Adeeba Talukder
Amy Uyematsu
Ocean Vuong
Jane Wong
Bryan Thao Worra
Katy Xiong
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Leah Silvieus was born in South Korea and adopted to the U.S. at three months of age. She spent her early childhood and adolescence in small towns in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley and western Colorado. The author of a full-length poetry collection, Arabilis, and two chapbooks, Anemochory and Season of Dares, Silvieus is a recipient of awards from The Academy of American Poets and The Fulbright Program. She serves on Kundiman’s Junior Board and as a mentor on The Brooklyn Poets Bridge.
Lee Herrick is the author of three books of poems, Scar and Flower, Gardening Secrets of the Dead, and This Many Miles from Desire. He served as Fresno Poet Laureate from 2015-2017. Herrick was born in Daejeon, South Korea, adopted at ten months old, and raised in California. He teaches at Fresno City College and in the MFA Program at Sierra Nevada College.