All the Flowers Kneeling is a 2022 debut poetry collection by American poet Paul Tran, published by Penguin Books for their Penguin Poets series. Its included pieces span topics such as Vietnamese American identity, intergenerational trauma, gender politics, and colonization.[1] The book was a finalist for the 2023 PEN Open Book Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.[2][3]
 | |
| Author | Paul Tran |
|---|---|
| Series | Penguin Poets |
| Publisher | Penguin Books |
Publication date | February 15, 2022 |
| Pages | 112 |
| ISBN | 978-0143136842 |
Critical reception
editThe New Yorker included the book on their Best Books of 2022 list.[4]
The New York Times called it "elegantly structured", as well as a "powerful debut, which marshals narrative lyrics and stark beauty ... to address personal and political violence."[5][6] Later, in August of 2022, the magazine included it in their Editors' Choice column.[7] The same month, Victoria Chang selected "Lipstick Elegy" to feature in the magazine, stating it "explores all the distances between mothers and their children, the frayed seams between countries and cultures."[8] The same poem was featured in Literary Hub on the day of the book's release.
The Guardian called the book an "unforgettable collection with careful symmetry".[9] Electric Literature dubbed it "an exquisitely crafted labyrinth of a book".[10] The Poetry Foundation observed "the sometimes excruciating power of these poems".[11] Chang, in the Los Angeles Review of Books, said that "it is successful and thoughtful as a first book" and that "The writing was so strong and powerful at the language level."[12] diaCRITICS, the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network's magazine, stated that "As a Vietnamese poet, Tran inherently constructs and tenderly deconstructs how Vietnamese refugee families 'recount and recant' the traumatic past."[13] RHINO Poetry said "These poems feel necessary, as all truths are necessary. More than that, they are also beautiful in the way that only art can be simultaneously beautiful and horrific and true."[14] Madeleine Cravens, in Ploughshares, noted "Tran's command of the poetic line" and lauded their vast and complex exploration of trauma.[15]
References
edit- ^ Tran, Paul (February 15, 2022). All the Flowers Kneeling. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0143136842.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ "Here are the winners of the 2023 PEN America Literary Awards". Literary Hub. 2023-03-03. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ vilaysacks1512 (2023-02-21). "Finalists Selected for CGU's Prestigious Kingsley and Kate Tufts Poetry Awards ·Claremont Graduate University". Claremont Graduate University. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Yorker, The New (2022-10-26). "The Best Books of 2022". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ "Newly Published, From a Vermont Sanctuary to Chicago's Spoken Word". The New York Times. March 16, 2022.
- ^ Gabbert, Elisa (July 20, 2022). "Chance, Design and Inevitability in Three New Poetry Books". The New York Times.
- ^ "10 New Books We Recommend This Week". The New York Times. August 4, 2022.
- ^ Tran, Paul (August 25, 2022). "Poem: Lipstick Elegy". The New York Times.
- ^ Kellaway, Kate (2022-06-07). "All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran review – a confrontation of pain and poetic form". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ Spring, Angela Maria (2022-02-16). "A Journey to the Underworld in Poems". Electric Literature. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ "All the Flowers Kneeling". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ "Two Roads: A Review-in-Dialogue of First Books: Amanda Moore's "Requeening," Paul Tran's "All the Flowers Kneeling," and Devon Walker-Figueroa's "Philomath"". Los Angeles Review of Books. 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ "Book Review: All the Flowers Kneeling - DVAN". 2022-02-16. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ "REVIEWS — RHINO — All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran". RHINO. 2022-02-20. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
- ^ Cravens, Madeleine (2022-02-15). "States of Unknowing in Paul Tran's All the Flowers Kneeling". Ploughshares. Retrieved 2024-10-29.