A series of tanka about parenting become side notes to the narrative flow and are, on the whole, less effective. Wanting to avoid clich, Chang has alighted on a form which eschews the elegiac in favour of. At times, it becomes a hodgepodge but is also rich with beautiful lines that connect readers to emotion. Victoria Changs Obit is mistrustful of the poetics of grief. The Boss (McSweeneys) won the PEN Center USA Literary Award and a California Book Award. Apat 10:00 AM 6 min read Victoria Chang, author of the poetry collection 'Obit.' (Isaac Fitzgerald) It happened before she expected it: Victoria Chang’s parents were struck. The Light Turns Blue,” the free-verse poem comprising the book’s second section, reinforces themes of death and grief while also considering ambition, happiness, and rain. Victoria Changs fourth book of poems, Barbie Chang, was published in 2017 by Copper Canyon Press.

Using a first line from Sylvia Plath as its title, “I am a Miner. In predominantly page-length prose poems, her obits address the speaker’s parents but also cover privacy, language, and the future as well as memory, hope, and even obsession: “Sadness-dies while the man across the street trims the hedges and I can see my children doing cartwheels.” The poems are infused with both grief and the need to accept it while responding to the demands of a career and raising a family. In her fifth collection, Guggenheim Fellowship winner Chang ( The Boss) uses an unusual subject-obituaries-to shed light on what qualities make for a good life as well as a passable death.

Obit by Victoria Chang