Read more
Joshua Nguyen's sharp, songlike, and often experimental collection explores the concept of compartmentalizing past trauma--sexual and generational--through the quotidian. Infused with the Shinto-inspired organizing practices of KonMari and the catchy nihilism of Mitski's songs, the poems in
Come Clean unpack, organize, and tidy up life's messy joys and hurtful chaos with intimacy, grace, and vulnerability.
About the author
Joshua Nguyen is the author of
Come Clean (University of Wisconsin Press), winner of the 2021 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, and the chapbook, "American Lục Bát for My Mother" (Bull City Press, 2021). He is a Vietnamese-American writer, a collegiate national poetry slam champion (CUPSI), and a native Houstonian. He is a PhD student at The University of Mississippi, where he also received his MFA.
Summary
Joshua Nguyen’s sharp, songlike, and often experimental collection compartmentalizes past trauma- sexual and generational - through the quotidian. These poems aim to confront the speaker’s past by physically, and mentally, cleaning up.
