Poetry. Asian American Studies. In THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE BUS, Gizelle Gajelonia discovers her muse in Honolulu's TheBus mass transit system. She takes seriously (in this seriously funny chapbook) the notion of routes—routes through Hawai'i's history and geography, routes through American poetry, routes through languages spoken in Hawai'i. Many of the pieces parody canonical poems by T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, John Ashbery, and Eric Chock. Out of her parodies come marvelous revisions. Among the figures included in Gajelonia's revised canon are Hawai'i's last queen, Lili'uokalani, Filipina nurses, and an honors thesis writer very like the author who dreams of Columbia University.

Author City: KANEOHE, HI USA

Gizelle Gajelonia was born in the Philippines and raised in Wahiawa, Hawai'i. She is a 2004 graduate of Leilehua High School (go Mules!). She earned her BA in English with Highest Honors from the University of Hawai'i in 2009.

Reviews and Other Links
Janna Plant in Tarpaulin Sky Reviews