Obit Read online

  “Affection,” “The Clock,” “Clothes,” “Friendships—died once beloved,” “The Ocean,” and “Optimism—died a slow death into a pavement”—all poems published in the Kenyon Review—also appeared in Best American Poetry 2019, selected by Major Jackson and published by Scribner.

  “Language—died, brilliant and beautiful” was anthologized in The Eloquent Poem, edited by Elise Paschen and published by Persea Books.

  A part of this book was awarded the Poetry Society of America’s 2018 Alice Fay di Castagnola Award. “The Obituary Writer” was published on PSA’s website.

  Thank you to Copper Canyon Press and the entire team.

  Thank you to the Guggenheim Foundation, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Prize, the Housatonic Book Awards, the Lannan Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony for support and encouragement.

  Thanks to all my beloved friends and supporters—way too many to mention, but here are just a few: Ilya Kaminsky (for tirelessly reading many versions of the manuscript and for all the conversations), G.C. Waldrep + Dana Levin + John Gallaher (my trusted friends in art and life), Dean Rader, Rick Barot, David Baker, Isaac Fitzgerald, Liza Voges, Jen Chang, Maggie Smith, Ann Townsend, and Wayne Miller; my LA poet friends Van Khanna, Blas Falconer, Elline Lipkin, and Charlie Jensen; my National Book Critics Circle colleagues; all my Antioch University colleagues (thanks Bernadette, Natalie, and Daisy!); my Idyllwild colleagues such as Ed Skoog and Heather Companiott; all my social media friends, and so many more…

  Thanks to my family for tolerating my obsession with poetry and poems. Thanks to my wiener dogs, Mustard and Ketchup, for listening to me read all these poems aloud a billion times. Thank you to my father, who unknowingly has populated my poems for the last decade, and finally, thank you to my mother, whom I’ve never properly thanked.

  Copyright 2020 by Victoria Chang

  All rights reserved

  Cover art: Phil Kovacevich

  ISBN: 978-1-55659-574-5

  eISBN: 978-1-61932-218-9

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  LANNAN LITERARY SELECTIONS 2020

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  Philip Metres, Shrapnel Maps

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  Poetry is vital to language and living. Since 1972, Copper Canyon Press has published extraordinary poetry from around the world to engage the imaginations and intellects of readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, teachers, students, and donors.