Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Master
    Master
    Master
    Ebook91 pages52 minutes

    Master

    By Simon Shieh and Terrance Hayes

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    2022 Winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, with an introduction from contest judge Terrance Hayes. National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes has provided an explosively supportive introduction, writing, “I felt this way reading Ocean Vuong’s debut, David Berman’s debut, the debuts of Kiki Petrosino and Jane Mead on Sarabande. This book feels like one of a kind.” Hayes’s support is tremendous, and we hope to book an event in New York with both poets together.

    Emerging, yet accomplished poet. Simon Shieh has already accumulated the following awards and fellowships: 2021 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow, 2nd Place in Narrative Magazine's 30 Below Contest 2020, 2020 Best New Poets Anthology feature, 2019 Disquiet International Literary Program scholarship recipient, 2019 Young China Watcher of the Year Award shortlist, Princeton in Asia Fellow at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing (2015-17).

    Extremely important and relatable subject matter surrounding toxic masculinity. Master tells the story of a boy's induction into masculinity through violence and subjugation, following the writer's struggle with masculinity from a small town in upstate New York to a boxing academy in Beijing. At the center is the unnamed and abusive “master” of the martial arts school. As Shieh writes, “These poems challenge masculinity narratives, and master narratives in general, by reaching toward vulnerability and beauty.”

    Finely crafted poetry that will be appealing to any poetry lover.Again, Terrance Hayes writes, “More than an introduction to readers (who will recognize the lyricism that makes this a special debut in the very first poem), I want to write a fan letter to the maker of this very fine collection. Where does one learn such vivid depictions of mystery and memory? I thought of Frank Stanford’s vernacular surrealism, except this surrealism is as restrained as a Rottweiler holding butterflies in its mouth; a steady, steely muzzle holding delicate fluttering colors. The lucid and haunted tone is bound to the specter of the Master shifting between father and trickster, friend and foe. He is part father, part trickster, part shadow, part guide, part foe. The student grapples with the master, the slave grapples with the master; intimately, attentively, and carefully we grapple with the master.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSarabande Books
    Release dateSep 12, 2023
    ISBN9781956046229
    Master

    Related to Master

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      The Poetry Of Perseverance

      Aug 15, 2018

      The Poetry Of Perseverance
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Devil Asks Why You Would Mouth The Word Pity

      Jul 1, 2022

      even in this abundance of dark? Even in this abundance of dark you have totake the stars on faith. Look: Under today’s dim sky there is a basket.In that basket there is a fish. Come night, you are the animal that will eat the best parts of it. And ye

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      May 1, 2023

      Let’s be GodFor a moment, Shall we?That which invites Composition,That which is suspended From a great height,The presence Of approximationHeavy in the meadows, I’m not afraid,And yet My shroud vanishesIn these lines, I am so weptPast weeping, And wh

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Something About John Coltrane

      Sep 1, 2021

      Something about a tree in shallow sleepListening for what it wants to remember: The note of a seed, its neck sliding throughDirt and its confusion—nothing cleansed Of struggle. The weight lost after death,A confrontation of death. John Coltrane Even

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Rot

      Sep 2, 2022

      Rot
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Diaspora Sonnets

      Sep 1, 2022

      The old men drink their spritzers and gossipunder awnings. Red hued and blustery, like two roosters on the side of a road.Skyward they crane their necks and laugh, sometimes they wonder about kings and future kingsand how the muscles peer from their

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      All I Know

      Jul 1, 2022

      The Statue of Liberty was packed in crates of lentilsand there is a species of catfish with scalesso tough that piranhas can’t chew throughto red softness. I’m thinking of what is vital,today. The willow tree in my dreams that swaysand a little girl

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Three Poems

      Nov 1, 2023

      for Brenda Shaughnessy The news isn’t good, and neither of us feelslike pretending, though the list of what we hope forgrows longer by the day. More news, goodor otherwise, everything witnessed by the lightof fires, and something we cherished alwaysb

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2020

      She was a security guard and even though her uniform was black I could seeIt was covered in blood, the marble floor was covered in blood, it wasSlowly pooling out from the space where HER HAND used to beOh my god, I said, then I started to say, YOUR

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      Two Poems
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Bless Your Soup

      Jan 1, 2022

      I am doing the work of healing.As in:I cry to early-2000s Paula DeAnda.I wash the towels from our apartment.I find your resume onlineand critique it harshly for a ghost audience. I come up with new names for emotions, likeDISLODGED FITTED SHEET orDAM

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Six Sonnets

      Jan 1, 2021

      Goldenrod, I could say, you know, everybody wants somethingfrom me, but, well, everybody wants something and nobody wantsnothing from me, goldenrod, towhead, beast. Goldenrod, you packthe meadows like gold-plated sardines. I have heart palpitationsbu

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      from BLACK PASTORAL

      Nov 1, 2023

      somewheres, some lifetimes ago I have run so far, so long.There is nowhere I haven’t beenBut here, in this field, a bodyLength from the ragged brinkThat gives way to forest.I collapsed here, the thin, hard slipOf me whittled at both ends.I want badly

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      nothing so lonely as the hospitalbed. nothing so lonely as beinglonely in the hospital bed. nothingso jargoned as the body sproutingbrush tuber cannula or rue. nothingso pure as the abstracted by which Imean exploded body, the body thatholds its skin

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Younger Than War

      Nov 9, 2023

      Younger Than War
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Falling Out of Love with Lyric Poetry

      Feb 6, 2024

      Bang out hundreds of pages of rhyming couplets about something other than your identity or your perceptions, and you, too, will likely fall out of love with lyric poetry. The post Falling Out of Love with Lyric Poetry appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Learning From Poetic Closure

      Jan 1, 2022

      In the 1980s while scholars were obsessed with theory, I was in a course of study, Japanese language and literature, that barely seemed touched by such heady stuff. Fortunately, one professor offered a graduate class designed to familiarize us with B

      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      Moon river, swollen river, river of starholeand bright, harness river, lichen river,river we velvet with our filth.River of butter and river of witches, rivercracked open careful like egg, or burstapart, unleashing its violet load.River mouths, river

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      Nov 1, 2022

      A prayer begins & endseach meeting, it starts with the word God& ends with the word difference. The difference, as far as I can tell,between what is offered & what is possible is a chasm. At times it seemswe simply run out of places to be, until we c

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Three Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      I’ve seen enough films where a character nickshimself shaving or maybe has a bread knife slip and the thinrun of blood is supposed to stand for some violence,for something he did and is desperateto cover up, but the truth will out—I’ve seen enough th

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Some Of The Men We Love Are Terrorists

      Jan 1, 2022

      & honestly, i have no solutions—our world a mad swarm of bees. forgive me my own devotion, the handsome clench. my first love masters a sinister arithmetic; his patrilineage swelling like a heavy god between his legs. i’m well-conditioned, my hands a

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      An Anti-Racist Poetry Reading List

      Jun 8, 2020

      These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America. The post An Anti-Racist Poetry Reading List appeared first on The Millions.

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      cook lobster. They’re loyal sea rubies and deservebetter than a pinch of lemon and herbed butter. But I’ll shower hot enough to brighten you, makezinnias of your shoulders and steal the towels when it’s over, your water-tattooed back a garden before

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The triumph Of A Heart

      Aug 14, 2024

      The triumph Of A Heart
      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2024

      I can’t understand, after years of reading, the relevanceof metaphysics. How does it account for the wants of my mind breaking apart my body? I prefer to think of poppies,the variety fated to bloom blood-red. Or, of planting poppies, any flowers in t

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Toward A Unified Theory

      Jan 1, 2022

      Condemned to live inside the weatherof our moods What are you doing? Filling this bucket with waterand dumping it into the water They can’t excavate the amphitheater further because it extends backbeneath the houses We close their eyes not for thembu

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Master

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Master - Simon Shieh

      Cover: Master, Poems by Simon Shieh

      Praise for Master

      "This book feels like one of a kind.… Master grapples with dream and memory: the song of hands in motion and the story of hands in action. This lyric and spare work is like the poet’s image of a Rottweiler holding butterflies in its mouth before letting them free. The poems can feel solitary and deliberate as ‘a sparring partner dancing to his own music.’ They can feel sensual and are poetic as ‘the water dripping off his body like missed syllables.’ Yes, I could introduce this book using nothing but dazzling excerpts. They reckon with the inexpressible. Beauty is set free from a mouth with fangs. I’m proud to select Master for the Kathryn A. Morton prize."

      —Terrance Hayes, from the Introduction

      "Simon Shieh ‘speak[s] the cadence of rain,’ reminding us that ‘each of us is a scorched page, part narrative, part dream.’ A gifted poet, each line is ‘an elegant lure.’ Master is a must-read, and Shieh is one of our most exciting and promising emerging poets."

      —Sherwin Jay Bitsui, winner of the American Book Award and the PEN/Open Book Award for Flood Song

      "This is one of the best collections I’ve read in a while. Simon Shieh’s voice is at once crisp and singular: his lines are tight, complex, and layered; his language unspools in powerful movements, so controlled and yet full of the devastating grace that precedes a final blow: ‘shattering the bone around my left eye / the doctors called it orbital / / my mistake: resting my head/on his shoulder—letting him cradle it in his arms.’ The beauty in this book is heartbreaking, brutal. Unsparing in its analysis and deconstruction of power, Master is a startling and stunning debut collection."

      —Sally Wen Mao, author of The Kingdom of Surfaces

      "If you surrender to Simon Shieh’s Master, if you let your eyes grow accustomed to its voluptuous and troubling dark, you will be rewarded with a singular reading experience: merciless in its vision and craft, dripping with muscularity and sweat, Shieh’s thrilling debut will leave you breathless."

      —Ama Codjoe, author of Bluest Nude

      MASTER

      SIMON SHIEH

      Logo: Sarabande Books

      Copyright © 2023 Simon Shieh

      FIRST EDITION

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

      Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

      (Provided by Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc.).

      Names: Shieh, Simon, author.

      Title: Master / Simon Shieh.

      Description: First edition. | Louisville, KY : Sarabande Books, [2023]

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1