Published in 2020
120 pages
Victoria Chang‘s new book of poems, OBIT, was published in 2020. Her middle grade novel, Love, Love, is forthcoming in 2020 by Sterling Books. Other books are Barbie Chang, The Boss, Salvinia Molesta, and Circle. She has also published a picture book, Is Mommy?, illustrated by Marla Frazee. She lives in Southern California and is the Program Chair of Antioch University’s MFA Program.
What is this book about?
After her mother died, poet Victoria Chang refused to write elegies. Rather, she distilled her grief during a feverish two weeks by writing scores of poetic obituaries for all she lost in the world. In Obit, Chang writes of “the way memory gets up after someone has died and starts walking.” These poems reinvent the form of newspaper obituary to both name what has died (“civility,” “language,” “the future,” “Mother’s blue dress”) and the cultural impact of death on the living. Whereas elegy attempts to immortalize the dead, an obituary expresses loss, and the love for the dead becomes a conduit for self-expression. In this unflinching and lyrical book, Chang meets her grief and creates a powerful testament for the living.
