The Palace of Contemplating Departure

(Hardback)

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Brynn Saito's debut collection of poetry begins in a cityscape and ends \u201cdeep in the cloud-filled valley, \u201d traversing myriad terrains--both emotional and physical--as it weaves towards completion. From the bays of Denmark to the deserts of California, Saito's searching lyricism gathers stories of sudden departures, forced removals, and the journeys chosen in between. Narrative selections inspired by childhood, sisterhood, lost loves and newfound freedoms are cased by interludes of otherworldly visions and persona poems spoken from many perspectives--animal and otherwise. This is a book about the ever-present capacity for wonder, transformation, and change: \u201cThe fighter is in me, \u201d claims the speaker in the poem \u201cWinter in Denmark, \u201d \u201cand the future is in me.\u201d Inside every moment of rage or loss--beneath tough city sidewalks and under the quiet of a moonlit valley--is another moment, ripe with possibility and foretelling the future sky.

Reviews

• Featured writing in Poetry Society of America

Author Bio

Brynn Saito is the author of Power Made Us Swoon (2016) and The Palace of Contemplating Departure (2013), winner of the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. She has received grant support from Densho, Hedgebrook, and the Santa Fe Arts Institute. Her poems have appeared in the New York Times and American Poetry Review and she was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. Brynn lives in the traditional homelands of the Yokuts and Mono peoples (also known as Fresno, CA), where she is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Fresno and co-director of Yonsei Memory Project. Currently, Brynn is co-editing with Brandon Shimoda an anthology of poetry written by descendants of the Japanese American incarceration, forthcoming in 2025 from Haymarket Books. Her third book of poetry, Under a Future Sky, will be published by Red Hen in August 2023.