This Way to the Sugar - Softcover

Minh Nguyen, Hieu

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1938912446 ISBN 13: 9781938912443

Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

The poems in Hieu Minh Nguyen's debut collection are a fearless and brutal dissection of nostalgia, trauma, and desire. The ghosts haunting This Way to the Sugar keep every poem either well fed or drooling, reminding us to "Take this body and see a body, where so many see a grave." These poem miss you terribly.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This Way To the Sugar explodes with a longing to hold the past and future, make them dance and give birth to Hieu Minh Nguyen, who the whole time has been spinning each line into impossible being. These are gut-wrenching, thought-provoking, death-defying poems filled with brilliant bursts of gusto that will clear out your "house...infested with subtitles."

--Ed Bok Lee, author of Whorled and Real Karaoke People

You owe it to yourself to read this book. That may sound exaggerated, but it is my hallowed truth: Hieu Minh Nguyen's poetry reminds me why I began writing and why I love this genre. His work is crisp and brave and incredibly alive. Each poem will thump inside you like a new heart.

--Sierra DeMulder, author of New Shoes on a Dead Horse and The Bones Below

"I won't tell you how I survived the wreckage," Hieu Minh Nguyen writes in his stunning debut collection, This Way to the Sugar. The book is a visceral survey of the ruins, scanning the violence enacted through race and heritage, sexuality and homophobia. If it's unclear how Nguyen survived the wreckage, at least we know why: beauty, Eros, the body. "I am typing with my tongue / I am so hard," the poet taunts, declaring, "I have built myself / a safer body," laying bare the sweet physicality of speech.
 
--Michael Mlekoday, author of The Dead Eat Everything

Hieu's book should be required reading. He is patient with his ghosts, letting each sing its song of broken glass and burning houses and bathroom rugs as band aids for black mold. I can't imagine life without these poems. Thank you Hieu.

--Bao Phi, author of Sông I Sing

About the Author

Hieu Minh Nguyen was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, by a single, Vietnamese-American, mother. The recipient of fellowships and grants from Kundiman, and Intermedia Arts, his work has also appeared in publications such as The Journal, PANK, Anti-, Muzzle, Indiana Review, and other journals. He is a curator for "Inside Voices" a reading series presented by Button Poetry, an organization dedicated to publishing, producing, and promoting poetry.

Edition details

• Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1938912446
• ISBN 13: 9781938912443
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 100