We Speak of Flowers

(Paperback)

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From award-winning poet Eileen Chong comes a dazzling book-length poem, comprising 101 interconnected fragments that can be read in any order, inviting the reader to construct multiple interpretations. We Speak of Flowers, Eileen Chong's sixth collection, is a wondrous extended elegy dedicated to her ancestors. Its 101 pieces are a spacious, meditative record of an attempt to make sense of grief in the face of great pain. Chong's interweaving of memory, history and possibility showcase her mastery of poetic form and craft, all the while displaying her signature light touch in exploring the pathos of things. This is poetry that sings of feeling, of deep connections to place and ancestral roots, and of the search for meaning in a broken world.

Author Bio

Eileen Chong is a Singapore-born Australian poet of Hakka, Hokkien and Peranakan descent. She is the author of ten books published in Australia and the United States. Major prizes her work has shortlisted for include the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, and twice for the Prime Minister's Literary Award. Her first book, Burning Rice, is the first poetry collection by an Asian Australian to be studied as part of the NSW HSC English syllabus. Her most recent collection with UQP, A Thousand Crimson Blooms, was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. She lives and works on unceded Gadigal land of the Eora Nation. eileenchong.com.au