Description:
In Jon Pineda's debut collection Birthmark, loss takes the shape of a scar, memory the shape of a childhood, and identity the shape of a birthmark on a lover's thigh. Like water taking the form of its container, Pineda's poems swell to fill the lines of his experiences. Against the backdrop of Tidewater, Virginia's crabs and cicadas, Pineda invokes his mestizo--the Tagalog word for being half Filipino--childhood, weaving laments for a tenuous paternal relationship and the loss of a sibling. Channeling these fragmented memories into a new discovery of self, Birthmark reclaims an identity, delicate yet unrelenting, with plaintive tones marked equally by pain, reflection, and redemption.
Review Quotes:
"With the publication of his first book, Jon Pineda shows himself to be one of the premier poets of Asian American literature. This stunning and beautiful collection delivers a strong message: This poet loves the sheer act of creating poems and discovering universal truths that begin in a specific culture but extend beyond broken and triumphant horizons."--The Bloomsbury Review