Jam Alerts - Softcover

Dinh, Linh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0925904686 ISBN 13: 9780925904683

Publisher: Chax Press, 2007

Synopsis

Poetry. Asian American Studies. JAM ALERTS is the newest title from this important and prolific poet. "Linh Dinh is one of the most consistently surprising writers around. One can find sources & roots for his writing, explain the sources of surrealism through the presence, say, of the French in Vietnam (tho they were driven out a decade before he was born), note that he is hardly the only good or succesful Vietnamese American poety, let alone the only poet to come from a working class background, yet he is not writing 'about' or even 'toward' nor 'from' any one of these contexts so much as he is through them--they are lenses, filters that condition his perspective on everyday life. Imagine what any other poet with this strong a sense of form would have to become in order to write such poetry...Linh is writing straightforward poetry, but from a perspective shared by almost no one else. This kind of exile is far deeper than mere geography"--Ron Silliman. Be sure to check out Linh Dinh's BORDERLESS BODIES and AMERICAN TATTS, both currently available from SPD.

About this title

About the Author:

Dinh was born in Saigon, Vietnam, came to the US in 1975, and is living in Philadelphia. In 2005, he was a David Wong fellow at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England. He spent 2002-2003 in Italy as a guest of the International Parliament of Writers and the town of Certaldo. His books include the story collections Fake House (Seven Stories Press, 2000) and Blood and Soap (Seven Stories Press, 2004), and the poetry chapbook DRUNKARD BOXING (Singing Horse Press, 1998) and the collections ALL AROUND WHAT EMPTIES OUT (Tinfish, 2003), AMERICAN TATTS (Chax, 2005), BORDERLESS BODIES (Factory School, 2006), JAM ALERTS (Chax, 2007), and SOME KIND OF CHEESE ORGY (Chax, 2009).

Review:

Linh Dinh is one of the most consistently surprising writers around. One can find sources & roots for his writing, explain the traces of surrealism through the presence, say, of the French in Vietnam (though they were driven out a decade before he was born), note that he is hardly the only good or successful Vietnamese American poet, let alone the only poet to come from a working class background, yet he is not writing ''about'' or even ''toward'' nor ''from'' any one of these contexts so much as he is through them they are lenses, filters, that condition his perspective on everyday life. Imagine what any other poet with this strong a sense of form would have had to become in order to write such poetry. Ted Berrigan, for example. Berrigan shares Linh's class background, which enables him to be as ruthless in a different way as Linh is in his. But the comparison stops there. Linh is writing straightforward poetry, but from a perspective shared by almost no one else. This kind of exile is far deeper than mere geography. Reading Borderless Bodies, you can feel Linh's deep loneliness on every page & realize that there are aspects of his poetry that you can t find anywhere else. We probably haven't had a writer this singular since the death of William Burroughs. --Ron Silliman

About this edition

• Publisher: Chax Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0925904686
• ISBN 13: 9780925904683
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 141