Poet Review of the Week: Joan Kwon Glass
April is National Poetry Month Series
As part of National Poetry Month, I’m not only inundating you with my own poetry, I want to introduce you to some of my favorite poets and their work. Today, I’m pleased to introduce you to the brilliance of Joan Kwon Glass.
Her official biography on her website describes her thus:
“Joan Kwon Glass is the mixed-race, Korean diasporic author of DAUGHTER OF THREE GONE KINGDOMS (winner of the 2024 Perugia Press Poetry Prize) & NIGHT SWIM (winner of the 2022 Diode Editions Book Award), as well as the chapbooks HOW TO MAKE PANCAKES FOR A DEAD BOY (Harbor Editions, 2022) & IF RUST CAN GROW ON THE MOON (Milk & Cake Press, 2022). Her books & poems have been featured on Poetry Daily, The Slowdown & Rattlecast. Joan has been a finalist for the Poetry Northwest Possession Sound Series, the Tupelo Helena Whitehill Award, the University of Akron Poetry Prize & the Subnivean Award & her work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY, Poetry Northwest, Passages North, Terrain, Ninth Letter, Tahoma Literary Review, Prairie Schooner, Salamander, AAWW (The Margins), RHINO, Rattle & elsewhere. Joan teaches for writing centers across the country, including Brooklyn Poets, Writing Workshops, Hudson Valley Writers Workshop & Corporeal & will be a 2025 guest speaker, guest writer or writer-in-residence at SWIMM, Amherst College, Smith College, Wesleyan University, & Western Connecticut State University’s MFA program.”
I personally own two of her books: DAUGHTER OF THREE GONE KINGDOMS and NIGHT SWIM, both of which blew me away.
My own pitiful attempts at a review pale in comparison to the glowing review DAUGHTER received in Psaltry & Lyre, parts of which I quote below.
“Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms presents a multidimensional version of identity, situating the “I” in a multiplicity of roles: we are sometimes animal, sometimes divine, sometimes observer, sometimes observed, sometimes body, sometimes ghost, sometimes grieving, sometimes light. . .. As this collection explores embodiment, it explores hunger. Hunger recurs, drives. Hunger dwells in the body, emanates from the specificity of the incarnation. . . The collection juxtaposes these moments of urgent hunger with beautiful, though brief, moments of communion.”
You can learn more about Joan and her books via her website Joan Kwon Glass, Poet
On her website, you can learn more about the services she offers. Full disclosure, I have scheduled time with her this summer to help me assemble my first poetry collection for publication. I’m so excited. I can’t wait.
She also has her own space here on Substack called “They Say Poetry is Dead” where she provides weekly poetry prompts every Friday. I have learned so much through her prompts and their thoughtful construction. Take a minute to check it out.
I hope you enjoy my deep dive into poetry this month. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to complaining about the usual stuff in May.