Hyangsu | Ashley Kim

Ashley Kim is a Korean American writer located in California. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Spill Stories’ anthology entitled Powerful Asian Moms, Hyphen Magazine, Stirring, Autofocus, FEED, and Star 82 Review, among others. She also reads for Variant Literature. Find her on Twitter @ashlogophile. Soli deo gloria! This engaging collection of poems explores the noisy and seductive particulars that make up a world and, through them, the identity you claim. How can such energetic claiming, the author seems to ask, feel melancholy?  The poems’ quality of attention to what’s specific about a life – people, food, languages spoken and heard – convey what is irreplaceable.  “Ah, to smell authenticity” she interrupts a poem of listmaking. Tensely intimate in sharing what can’t be recreated, these poems intensely attune us to the nature of loss. - Karen Kevorkian In this ambitious, heart-fortifying and at times wryly funny collection, Ashley Kim deftly explores the complexities o