{"product_id":"the-kingdom-of-surfaces-poems-paperback","title":"The Kingdom of Surfaces: Poems - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSally Wen Mao\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA virtuosic new poetry collection from Sally Wen Mao, \"a consistently inspiring and exciting voice\" (Morgan Parker)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Kingdom of Surfaces, \u003c\/i\u003e award-winning poet Sally Wen Mao examines art and history--especially the provenance of objects such as porcelain, silk, and pearls--to frame an important conversation on beauty, empire, commodification, and violence. In lyric poems and wide-ranging sequences, Mao interrogates gendered expressions such as the contemporary \"leftover women,\" which denotes unmarried women, and the historical \"castle-toppler,\" a term used to describe a concubine whose beauty ruins an emperor and his empire. These poems also explore the permeability of object and subject through the history of Chinese women in America, labor practices around the silk loom, and the ongoing violence against Asian people during the COVID-19 pandemic. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt its heart, \u003ci\u003eThe Kingdom of Surfaces\u003c\/i\u003e imagines the poet wandering into a Western fantasy, which covets, imitates, and appropriates Chinese aesthetics via Chinamania and the nineteenth-century Aesthetic movement, while perpetuating state violence upon actual lives. The title poem is a speculative recasting of \"Through the Looking-Glass,\" set in a surreal topsy-turvy version of the China-themed 2015 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala. \u003ci\u003eThe Kingdom of Surfaces\u003c\/i\u003e is a brilliantly conceived call for those who recognize the horrors of American exceptionalism to topple the empire that values capital over lives and power over liberation.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSally Wen Mao \u003c\/b\u003eis the author of two previous poetry collections, \u003ci\u003eMad Honey Symposium \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOculus\u003c\/i\u003e, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A former fellow at the New York Public Library Cullman Center, she lives in New York City.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 112\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.47 x 8.9 x 6.77 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 01, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42170951532679,"sku":"9781644452370","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/9c06fbf9f85e811cdaa70b2bfbe2607e.webp?v=1733352023","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/the-kingdom-of-surfaces-poems-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}