Sometimes, pain is just pain: APJ anthologises poem by Jennifer Nguyen
A poem from Jennifer Nguyen’s When I die slingshot my ashes onto the surface of the moon has been republished in Australian Poetry Journal and features a reflection on Jennifer’s work by Shu-Ling Chua.
Grab a copy of APJ 10.2 ‘tribute, observations’ from Australian Poetry.
“Jennifer Nguyen’s collection, When I die slingshot my ashes onto the surface of the moon, is a haven for lonely souls, insomniacs, the abandoned and the forgotten. It is both blanket fort and paper boat. I want to curl up within her words, like a cat. Jen’s poems remind me to pay attention, to be gentle to myself and to others. Self-deprecating, funny and sincere, they retain a childlike awe.” - Shu-Ling Chua, Australian Poetry Journal
'Poetry is / can / be anything … everything,' says When I die slingshot my ashes onto the surface of the moon. She is sleepy, but they cannot sleep. It is 4:44 a.m. loneliness, this restlessness. The soft hue of blue from the TV bathes the room via a 24/7 lo-fi livestream. ‘Poems are troubled into existence’ – When I die, she read that somewhere, but cannot remember where, but it has stayed, it is the underpinning of this book and all that contains with/in/out. Where did these bruises come from? The heart, the brain, the heart, the soul? How do I live? How do I keep on living? I don’t know, is the honest answer. I must, is the honest honest answer.
Read a review by Darlene Silva Soberano over at Cordite >
First edition. Perfect bound. 78 pages.
ISBN: 9780648147565
About the author
Jennifer Nguyen is a Vietnamese–Australian writer, poet and editor. Her fiction, poetry and non-fiction has appeared in Ibis House, Scum Mag, The Lifted Brow (online), Rabbit, and Lor Journal, among others. Jennifer has performed writing at West Writers Forum and Melbourne Writers Festival. She edits fiction for Rambutan Literary, is an editorial mentee at Djed Press and was previously a creative producer at Emerging Writers’ Festival. Jennifer is a member of West Writers Group based at the Footscray Community Arts Centre.
Jennifer Nguyen reads from When I die slingshot my ashes onto the surface of the moon. Photograph by Leah Jing.