Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Orange Tree

The Orange Tree

Li, Dong
Reddy, Srikanth

Paperback

Series: Phoenix Poets

General Poetry

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 0226826163
ISBN13: 9780226826165
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: Mar 31 2023
Pages: 88
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.40 Width: 6.40 Depth: 9.40
Language: English
Debut collection of poems that weaves stories of family history, war, and migration.

Dong Li's The Orange Tree is a collection of narrative poems that braids forgotten legends, personal sorrows, and political upheavals into a cinematic account of Chinese history as experienced by one family. Amid chaos and catastrophe, the child narrator examines a yellowed family photo to find resemblances and learns a new language, inventing compound words to conjure and connect family stories. These invented words and the calligraphy of untranslated Chinese characters appear in lists separating the book's narrative sections.

Li's lyrical and experimental collection transcends the individual, placing generations of family members and anonymous others together in a single moment that surpasses chronological time. Weaving through stories of people with little means, between wars and celebrations, over bridges and walls, and between trees and gardens, Li's poems offer intimate perspectives on times that resonate with our own. The result is an unflinching meditation on family history, collective trauma, and imaginative recovery.

The Orange Tree is the recipient of the inaugural Phoenix Emerging Poet Book Prize for 2023.

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