World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On

I have admired this author's work for years now after having read for the SFPA's Elgin awards, where her collection [b:Soft Science|41745412|Soft Science|Franny Choi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1536484665l/41745412.SX50.jpg|65148118] won the Elgin award in 2020 in the full length category, and her chapbook [b:Death by Sex Machine|36131815|Death by Sex Machine|Franny Choi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1503825716l/36131815.SY75.jpg|57729869] was nominated for the 2019 award. That award is given for speculative poetry books but this collection is more on the mainstream side. This new book is a product of the time of pandemic but it also mines through history going back decades.

The things I like in her work are the way her words slash almost recklessly, the willingness to take big chances, and the balance between form and content that permeates all her works. She works with high stakes subjects, not the safe and restrained. I enjoyed this feeling of being able to perceive through her senses in her work. The diction may be casual but the ideas are not slack. The author comes from a time where poetry slams were a relevant phenomenon and is tuned to the spoken word. Her poems frequently feature questions of identity and of history both personal and communal. There are howls of pain and deep soul-shaking anger whether caused by outrages the speaker of the poem recalls, by historical crimes or sorrows.

In the Notes section at the end of this book she calls out many influences that have inspired a poem or contributed to it. These are not only other poems but also fictional works, visual works, other works of art, and personal contacts.

I received this advance reading copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.