Eye Level (poetry collection)
 | |
| Author | Jenny Xie |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Graywolf Press |
Publication date | April 3, 2018 |
| Pages | 80 |
| Awards | Walt Whitman Award Holmes Poetry Prize Levis Reading Prize |
| ISBN | 978-1555978020 |
| Followed by | The Rupture Tense |
Eye Level: Poems is a 2018 debut poetry collection by Jenny Xie.[1] It was published by Graywolf Press after Juan Felipe Herrera selected Xie's manuscript for the Walt Whitman Award in 2017.[2] After publication, the book was nominated for several awards and won a few prizes including the Levis Reading Prize.[3]
Content
[edit]The book follows a speaker and their travels through the world as they arrive in destinations like Phnom Penh, Hanoi, and Corfu. The poem's themes include selfhood; isolation; borders; and racial, ethnic, and national identities, among others.
Critical reception
[edit]The book won the 22nd Levis Reading Prize and the Holmes Poetry Prize.[4] The book also was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry and the PEN Open Book Award.[5][6]
Publishers Weekly said "The work exhibits much promise conceptually and is rife with feelings of loneliness, disorientation, desire, and complicity" but observed that "Yet, rather than build tension and a sense of urgency, the observations continue to multiply as the speaker disappears among the work’s shifting perspectives."[7]
Some critics lauded the nature of diaspora and dispossession throughout Xie's poems. The New Yorker analyzed "The ironies of [Xie's] shifting positions, as a Chinese immigrant in America and as a Chinese-American travelling through Asia".[8] The Poetry Project said "Xie’s poems travel Cambodia, Southern Europe, China and the US, while, like vagabonds, the people in the poems feel uprooted and excluded from their surroundings" and compared Xie's project to that of Natalie Diaz, Suji Kwock Kim, Cathy Park Hong, and other writers who "have shown that the private is always public for the disenfranchised citizen."[9] Hong Kong Review of Books compared her writing to Ocean Vuong and Hieu Minh Nguyen.[10]
Other critics observed Xie's approach to individual matters of self, observation, and isolation.[11][12] The Michigan Quarterly Review said "Xie’s ability to invite us along, witness to both beauty and mystery, is astonishing. At times she keeps her distance, but rightfully so. After all, we’re inside her world because she has invited us, not because, as a poet, it’s required."[13] The Manchester Review concluded "there is a fine, ‘crystalline’ quality to the poems in Eye Level; both the realism and the mysticism of its themes and music feel warm and achieved."[14] Heavy Feather Review wrote that "Eye Level is refreshing and restorative, spiritual and physical, as great art is. Xie writes into and out from the heart of things. Xie makes the messy look easy, like a light wash."[15] Blackbird said "Whether because of its vivid imagery, sustained meditations, or deft language making, Eye Level continues to resonate well after one finishes the book".[16] Tupelo Quarterly wrote that the book "reveals the prowess of a new contemporary literary great."[17]
The Millions mentioned the book in a list of must-read poetry in April of 2018.[18]
References
[edit]- ^ Xie, Jenny (April 3, 2018). Eye Level: Poems. Graywolf Press. ISBN 978-1555978020.
- ^ "Juan Felipe Herrera Selects Jenny Xie as 2017 Walt Whitman Award Recipient". Poets.org. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Donovan, Gregory (July 8, 2019). "Jenny Xie wins 22nd annual Levis Reading Prize for 'Eye Level'". VCU News. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ "Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts selects Poet Jenny Xie for Holmes National Poetry Prize". Lewis Center for the Arts. 2018-05-29. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Dwyer, Colin (November 14, 2018). "Sigrid Nunez, Elizabeth Acevedo Among 2018 National Book Award Winners". NPR.
- ^ "Announcing the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists". PEN America. 2019-01-15. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ "Eye Level by Jenny Xie". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Chiasson, Dan (2018-04-30). "Jenny Xie Writes a Sightseer's Guide to the Self". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Aber, Aria. "Jenny Xie's Eye Level". The Poetry Project. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Williams, M. Drew (2018-07-04). "Eye Level". Hong Kong Review of Books 香港書評. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Igloria, Luisa A. (2018-10-05). "Eye Level by Jenny Xie". RHINO. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ "Jenny Xie: Eye Level". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Funk, Augusta. "Cracking the Lens: A Review of Jenny Xie's "Eye Level" – Michigan Quarterly Review". sites.lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Pople, Ian (2019-06-03). "Jenny Xie | Eye Level". The Manchester Review. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Elliott, Louis (2020-09-03). "Bringing the Heart of Things to Eye Level". Heavy Feather Review. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Phillips, Emilia. "Eye Level by Jenny Xie". blackbird.vcu.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Darling, Kristina Marie (2018-08-30). ""How do eyes and ears keep pace?" A Review of Jenny Xie's Eye Level". Tupelo Quarterly. Retrieved 2024-11-14.
- ^ Ripatrazone, Nick (2018-04-03). "Must-Read Poetry: April 2018". The Millions. Retrieved 2024-11-14.