{"title":"Victoria Chang","description":"\u003cp\u003eVictoria Chang's work delves deep into the intersections of memory, identity, and loss, crafting poetry and prose that resonate with emotional clarity and lyrical intensity. Her writing often intertwines personal reflection with broader cultural and social themes, inviting readers into a space where the intimate meets the universal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExploring topics from grief to resilience, her books offer profound insights into the human condition, marked by vivid imagery and thoughtful meditation. Readers drawn to \u003cem\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/em\u003e will find her voice both poignant and compelling, challenging conventional forms and expectations.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"with-my-back-to-the-world-by-victoria-chang-9781472158215","title":"With My Back to the World","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eWINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST POETRY COLLECTION 2024\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Chang has liberated the Ekphrastic form to new lyric heights and depths. Inventive, meditative, audacious, strange and soulful. A marvel of a collection that engages the eye and mind as much as the ear and heart' \u003ci\u003eRaymond Antrobus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eYesterday I slung my depression on my back and went to the museum. I only asked four attendants where the Agnes painting was and the fifth one knew. I walked into the room and saw it right away. From afar, it was a large white square.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ci\u003eWith My Back to the World\u003c\/i\u003e engages with the paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, the celebrated abstract modern artist, in ways that open up new modes of expression, expanding the scope of what art, poetry, and the human mind can do. Filled with surprise and insight, wit and profundity, the book explores the nature of the self, of existence, life and death, grief and depression, time and space. Strikingly original, fluidly strange, Victoria Chang's new collection is a book that speaks to how we see and are seen.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ci\u003eWith My Back to the World\u003c\/i\u003e won the Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection on the 10th October 2024.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47433336357100,"sku":"9781472158215","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781472158215.jpg?v=1774765120"},{"product_id":"the-trees-witness-everything-by-victoria-chang-9781472157454","title":"The Trees Witness Everything","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA lover of strict form, best-selling poet Victoria Chang turns to compact Japanese waka, powerfully innovating on tradition while continuing her pursuit of one of life's hardest questions: how to let go.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Trees Witness Everything\u003c\/i\u003e, Victoria Chang reinvigorates language by way of concentration, using constraint to illuminate and free the wild interior. Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called 'wakas,' each poem is shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets including W.S. Merwin, whose poem titles are repurposed as frames and mirrors for the text, stitching past and present in complex dialogue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChang depicts the smooth, melancholic isolation of the mind while reaching outward to name — with reverence, economy and whimsy — the ache of wanting, the hawk and its shadow, our human urge to hide the minute beneath the light.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47461663375596,"sku":"9781472157454","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781472157454-the-trees-witness-everything.jpg?v=1774974425"},{"product_id":"obit-by-victoria-chang-9781472157485","title":"Obit","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePEN Voelcker Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnisfield-Wolf Book Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 100 Notable Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNPR's Best Books\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNational Book Award in Poetry, Longlist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNational Book Critics Circle, Finalist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGriffin Poetry Prize, Shortlist\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrank Sanchez Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter her mother died, poet Victoria Chang refused to write elegies. Rather, she distilled her grief during a feverish two weeks by writing scores of poetic obituaries for all she lost in the world. These poems reinvent the form of newspaper obituary to both name what has died (\"civility,\" \"language,\" \"the future,\" \"Mother's blue dress\") and the cultural impact of death on the living. Loss, and the love for the dead, becomes a conduit for self-expression. In this unflinching and lyrical book, Chang meets her grief and creates a powerful testament for the living.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChang's new collection explores her father's illness and her mother's death, treating mortality as a constantly shifting enigma\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cb\u003eA serene acceptance of grief\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \"100 Notable Books of 2020\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExceptional... Chang's poems expand and contract to create surprising geometries of language, vividly capturing the grief they explore\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471315026156,"sku":"9781472157485","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781472157485-obit.jpg?v=1775238515"},{"product_id":"tree-of-knowledge-by-victoria-chang-9781472160300","title":"Tree of Knowledge","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA poet watches the limbs of a eucalyptus tree get sawed off: the image persists, recurring across poems of art, language, selfhood, memory, and loss.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJoan Mitchell said, \u003cem\u003eWhen I talk about love, I mean loving a tree. When I talk about love, I mean loving where a tree used to be.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMen assess the eucalyptus tree growing on the poet's street; a crane arrives. The sound of a chainsaw rings in the air and branches begin to fall. This tree-cutting haunts the poet, and refracts across the remarkable work collected in \u003cem\u003eTree of Knowledge\u003c\/em\u003e as Chang turns her thoughts to artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell and Hilma af Klint.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRoving, evocative, and intricate, \u003cem\u003eTree of Knowledge\u003c\/em\u003e is rooted in Victoria Chang's crystalline voice and generous, probing gaze, and by certain images – trees, a hanging figure, a branch, fingertips, a briefcase – that resurface like apparitions.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47872859472108,"sku":"9781472160300","price":49.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781472160300-tree-of-knowledge.jpg?v=1782937502"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/victoria-chang.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}