{"product_id":"when-i-grow-up-i-want-to-be-a-list-of-further-possibilities","title":"When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThis title is available on audiobook! Get your copy here, or wherever you listen to audiobooks!\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1207935844\u0026amp;color=%23353b41\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_comments=true\u0026amp;show_user=true\u0026amp;show_reposts=false\u0026amp;show_teaser=true\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc; line-break: anywhere; word-break: normal; overflow: hidden; white-space: nowrap; text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif; font-weight: 100;\"\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-572920496\" title=\"BOA Editions\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBOA Editions\u003c\/a\u003e · \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-572920496\/self-portrait-as-so-much-potential-by-chen-chen\" title='\"Self-Portrait As So Much Potential\" by Chen Chen' style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\"Self-Portrait As So Much Potential\" by Chen Chen\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.boaeditions.org\/pages\/a-poulin-jr-poetry-prize\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eA. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE\u003c\/a\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the GLCA New Writers Award\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinner of the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for the National Book Award for Poetry\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Barabara Gittings Literature Award Honor Book\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this ferocious and tender debut, Chen Chen investigates inherited forms of love and family—the strained relationship between a mother and son, the cost of necessary goodbyes—all from Asian American, immigrant, and queer perspectives. Holding all accountable, this collection fully embraces the loss, grief, and abundant joy that come with charting one’s own path in identity, life, and love.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eExcerpt\u003cstrong\u003e from \"When I Grow Up I Want To Be A List Of Further Possibilities\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTo be good\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eex\/current friend for R. To be one last\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003einspired way to get back at R. To be relationship\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eadvice for L. To be advice\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003efor my mother. To be a more comfortable\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehospital bed for my mother. To be\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eno more hospital beds. To be, in my spare time,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAmerica for my uncle, who wants to be China\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003efor me. To be a country of trafficless roads\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u0026amp; a sports car for my aunt, who likes to go\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003efast. To be a cyclone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eof laughter when my parents say\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003etheir new coworker is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003elike that,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e they can tell\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ebecause he wears pink socks, see, you don’t, so you can’t,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ecan’t be one of them.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e To be the one\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emy parents raised me to be—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ea season from the planet\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eof planet-sized storms.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTo be a backpack of PB\u0026amp;J \u0026amp; every \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ething I know, for my brothers, who are becoming\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003etheir own storms. To be, for me, nobody,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehomebody, body in bed watching TV. To go 2D\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u0026amp; be a painting, an amateur’s hilltop \u0026amp; stars,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSimple decoration for the new apartment\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewith you. To be close, J.,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eto everything that is close to you—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eblue blanket, red cup, green shoes\u003cbr\u003eWith pink laces.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTo be the blue \u0026amp; the red.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe green, the hot pink.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eWhen I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eWhat does Millennial poetry look like? One answer might be this wild debut from Chen Chen. He seems to run at the mouth, free-associating wildly, switching between lingo and \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003ehigher\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e forms of diction. Nothing\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es out of bounds or off limits, no culture too \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003epop\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e to find its place in poetry . . . nor anything too silly to point the way toward serious aims. And yet this is a deeply serious and moving book about Chinese-American experience, young love, poetry, family, and the family one makes amongst friends.\u003cspan\u003e” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— NPR Books\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"I so deeply love this poet's imagination where old shoes might walk back up the steps of a house, where one speaker pledges 'allegiance to the already fallen snow' and another says 'Let's put our briefcases on our heads, in the sudden rain, \/\/ \u0026amp; continue meeting as if we've just been given our names.' In precise and gorgeous language, Chen Chen shows us that the world is strange and bright with ardor. He reminds us of the miracle of the sensual and sensory. This is a book I will return to whenever I forget what a poem can do, whenever I am in need of a song or hope. If a peony wrote poems in a human language, I think that these would be his poems. If the rain wrote poems...I mean: \u003cem\u003ethis\u003c\/em\u003e is an important work by an astonishing and vital voice.\" \u003cstrong\u003e— Aracelis Girmay\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eThe radioactive spider that bit Chen Chen [isn’t that how first books get made?] gave him powers both demonic and divine. The bite transmitted vision, worry, want, memory of China, America’s grief, and\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ePeople\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003emagazine, as well as a radical queer critique of the normative. What a gift that bite was—linguistic, erotic, politic and impolitic, idiosyncratic and emphatic. What a blessing and burden to write out of the manifold possibilities of that contact.\u003cspan\u003e” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— Bruce Smith\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Chen Chen refuses to be boxed in or nailed down. He is a poet of Whitman’s multitudes and of Langston Hughes\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es blues, of Dickinson\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003es \u003cspan\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003eso cold no fire can warm me\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e and of Michael Palmer’s comic interrogation. What unifies the brilliance of \u003cem\u003eWhen I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities\u003c\/em\u003e is a voice desperate to believe that within every one of life’s sadnesses there is also hope, meaning, and—if we are willing to laugh at ourselves—humor. This is a book I wish existed when I first began reading poetry. Chen is a poet I’ll be reading for the rest of my life.\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e—Jericho Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eChen Chen is already one of my favorite poets ever. Funny, absurd, bitter, surreal, always surprising, and deeply in love with this flawed world. I\u003cspan\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003em in love with this book.\u003cspan\u003e” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e— Sherman Alexie\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date: April 11, 2017\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN: 978-1-942683-33-9 \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2017\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46623879921893,"sku":"9781942683339","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":46623879954661,"sku":"","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Signed Paperback","offer_id":47597515210981,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/WhenIGrowUp_FinalFront.jpg?v=1527683783","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/when-i-grow-up-i-want-to-be-a-list-of-further-possibilities","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}