PRESS RELEASE: TATTERED BOAT BY LUIS H. FRANCIA
TATTERED BOAT
By
Luis H. Francia
The
University of the Philippines Press
ISBN:
978-971-542-720-3
U.S.
Price: $20.00
Pages:
101
Order
through Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Tattered-Boat-Luis-H-Francia/dp/9715427200/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398867032&sr=8-1&keywords=francia+tattered+boat
Ranging
over a diverse array of subjects, whether it is Christ as a Jewish retiree in
Miami, the frog prince, a suicide bomber, or Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, Tattered Boat exemplifies Luis H. Francia’s quest for the lyrical line that
fulfills the impulse towards non-narrative meaning. These are poems rife with
double entendres, contradictions, and playful ironies. As Danton Remoto puts
it, “Like Wang Wei in his middle passage, the poet traces in the air the smoke
rings of journeys and destinations, deaths, and rebirths.” Per Krip Yuson, the
collection represents the “inquisition of a planet fraught with false gods.”
The book expands on
similar themes explored in Museum of
Absences (co-published by Meritage Press and the University of the
Philippines Press). Of those works, Nick
Carbo writes that Francia’s “themes of love, loss, and redemption weave through
the collection with the expert hand of a Stephane Mallarmé or a Federico
Fellini.” His last publication, The
Beauty of Ghosts, portrayed the Filipino immigrant experience in the voices
of individual sojourners to these shores, from an overworked nurse in Queens to
a teenaged rapper.
Francia has been
widely anthologized and his poems have appeared in numerous journals. He
teaches in the Asian American Studies programs of New York University and
Hunter College. He is also on the MFA Faculty at the City University of Hong
Kong, where he teaches workshops in poetry and creative nonfiction.
Tattered Boat is published by the University of the
Philippines Press and is distributed in the U.S. through Amazon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
In addition to Tattered Boat, Luis
H. Francia is the author of
other poetry collections, including The
Beauty of Ghosts, Museum of Absences,
and The Arctic Archipelago and Other
Poems. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies,
including Language for a New Century
and Love Rise Up! ! His poems have been translated into
Spanish, German, and Filipino.
His memoir, Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago,
won both the 2002 PEN Open Book and the Asian American Writers awards. He
edited Brown River, White Ocean: An
Anthology of Twentieth Century Philippine Literature in English, and
co-edited the literary anthology Flippin’:
Filipinos on America and Vestiges of
War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream,
1899-1999. Included in the Library of America’s Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing, Francia is on the faculty of
Asian American Studies at New York University and Hunter College, and teaches
poetry and creative nonfiction at City University of Hong Kong’s MFA Program.
He and his wife live in Queens.
ANOTHER POETRY BOOK BY LUIS FRANCIA:
Luis H. Francia’s
2004 poetry book, Museum of Absences
(Meritage Press), is also available on Amazon.com. To order: http://www.amazon.com/Museum-Absences-Luis-H-Francia/dp/9715424155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398186477&sr=8-1&keywords=francia+museum+of+absences
Ignore the "Temporarily Out of Stock" note on Amazon. The books have been shipped.
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