Description
“THE LONELIEST WHALE BLUES sings a spiraling, haunting song of both the perdurability and fragility of historical, biological, and geological cycles with a poetic voice that is by turns tender, whimsical, and urgent. In traditional Japanese haibun alternating with graceful lyrics, Suzuki-Martinez follows the movement of insects, birds, weather, and oceans with a curious and watchful eye. These compelling poems track the histories of racism and internment, and serve as harbingers for the unfolding climate crisis. This is a book that celebrates monsters as sacred messengers. This is a book that calls forth the fierce molten lions burning within shy rabbits. This is a book that channels a matrilineage in which 'everyone knows / the gods speak only to women.'” —Lee Ann Roripaugh
"Moving from Hawai'i, to Japan, to Arizona, her poems are both world-weary and enthralled by the world. She doesn’t juxtapose the beautiful and the monstrous—she constellates both into language that’s elegiac and ecstatic. Suzuki-Martinez has written a beautifully connective and consciousness-raising book." — Eduardo Corral
Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Environmental Studies. Women’s Studies.
Author Bio
Sharon Suzuki-Martinez is a poet and essayist. Her first book, THE WAY OF ALL FLUX (New Rivers Press, 2012), won the MVP Prize. She has a micro-chapbook, A Glimpse of Birds over O'odham Land (Rinky Dink Press, 2021). Suzuki-Martinez is a Kundiman fellow, a Pushcart nominee, and a Best of the Net finalist. She grew up in Kāne'ohe, Hawai'i, and now lives with her husband David in Tempe, Arizona, on the ancestral homeland of the Akimel O'odham.
Author City: TEMPE, AZ USA