Christine Kitano’s Dumb Luck & other poems offers a portrait of a thirty-something Asian American woman who finds herself living in the relative safety of upstate New York before and during the pandemic. In one poem the speaker reflects on current events (the ongoing pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing protests, the surge in anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S.) and contrasts these with the peace of rural New York, wondering, “Is this / the reward for good luck, just a more / comfortable survival?” The poems in this collection orbit around this question, providing both lyric and narrative explorations on luck, guilt, and survival. Ultimately, these poems delve into how the otherwise mundane questions of selfhood and identity for a gendered and racialized body take on greater urgency during times of increased social unrest, panic, and violence.
Winner of The 2023 Robert Phillips Chapbook Prize, selected by Alison Pelegrin.
- ISBN10 1680033859
- ISBN13 9781680033854
- Publish Date 31 July 2024
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Texas Review Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 44
- Language English