{"product_id":"your-emergency-contact-has-experienced-an-emergency","title":"Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAudiobook now available! \u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/1600377459\u0026amp;color=%23ff5500\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\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\/justine-alfano\" title=\"BOA Editions\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBOA Editions\u003c\/a\u003e · \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/justine-alfano\/your-emergency-contact-sample\" title=\"Your Emergency Contact _ Sample\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eYour Emergency Contact _ Sample\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat happens when everything falls away, when those you call on in times of need are themselves calling out for rescue? \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn his highly anticipated second collection, Chen Chen continues his investigation of family, both blood and chosen, examining what one inherits and what one invents, as a queer Asian American living through an era of Trump, mass shootings, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Always at work in the wrecked heart of this new collection is a switchboard operator, picking up and connecting calls. Raucous 2 a.m. prank calls. Whispered-in-a-classroom emergency calls. And sometimes, its pages record the dropping of a call, a failure or refusal to pick up. With irrepressible humor and play, these anarchic poems celebrate life, despite all that would crush aliveness. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHybrid in form and set in New England, West Texas, and a landlocked province of China, among other places, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eYour Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e refuses neat categorizations and pat answers. Instead, the book offers an insatiable curiosity about how it is we keep finding ways to hold onto one another.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eYour Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\"Inviting, funny, “trying to be marvelous,” Chen Chen’s second volume lives up to its provocative title.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Stephanie Burt, for Boston Globe's The Best Books of 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\"I revel in Chen’s capaciousness, his lightning-fast modulations between silly and sober, his capacity to make poetry that is no less serious for being fun.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Craig Morgan Teicher, poet and critic, for NPR's 2022 Books We Love\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\"\u003cspan\u003eThese questioning, funny, and deeply humane poems pack a fantastic punch.\" \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, ★ Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“Chen Chen is one of my favorite poets writing today. His intuitive sense of humor makes me laugh out loud while reading his poems which brim with pathos. Humor cross-sections a heart, coating it with laughter while also ripping it in half...Ultimately, Chen's poems are honest, without the performative film that layers so much today, and his poems leave me speechless and transformed.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Victoria Chang, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOBIT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“These poems can do so much, they can tell you, for example, ‘what bees wear at night \/ when they want to feel sexy,’ these poems can be hilarious, even when grieving. These poems remember they are written in the late empire, inside this grief that is America of the early 2020s, and somehow these poems also console with all the things that grackles bring. Anyone who has a boyfriend or a mother should read these poems. Anyone who’s ever been made uncomfortable in this country in public or in private should read them, too. Anyone who likes to laugh out loud and then realize that they have learned something far more than a joke: that they are wiser from reading the lines: read these poems. Chen Chen is as real as poets can be.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Ilya Kaminsky, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDeaf Republic\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e“With humor, deep intelligence, and what feels to me like a luminous everyday philosophy, Chen Chen leads me “through the wound of it.” It being life. In America. In the 21st Century. In a body touched by violence and care, grief and desire, hope and heavy knowledge. \u003cem\u003eYour Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency\u003c\/em\u003e is dolorous, riotous, rapturous.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Tracy K. Smith, author of \u003cem\u003eSuch Color: New and Selected Poems\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003ewe’ll be gone after these brief messages\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003egod stopped by in his magenta rowboat\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ei said god you have to stop stopping by\u003cbr\u003eif you’re never going to tell me the meaning of life\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003egod said life is meaningless\u003cbr\u003ewhile language often means too much\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emy grandmother stopped by \u0026amp; said no\u003cbr\u003ethe meaning of life is love\u003cbr\u003ethe kind that produces children\u003cbr\u003ewhy don’t you have a girlfriend yet\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003emy mother stopped by \u0026amp; said look\u003cbr\u003ehe’s busy with his studies stop asking\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003egod got back in his turquoise steamship\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003elife is a joyful thing he said\u003cbr\u003eit’s probably very good for you\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46623530975461,"sku":"","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":46623531008229,"sku":"","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Signed Paperback","offer_id":47597501939941,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/YourEmergencyContact_RGB_SM.jpg?v=1644946779","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/products\/your-emergency-contact-has-experienced-an-emergency","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}