Tell It Slant

Tell It Slant

Author	John Yau
Publisher	Omnidawn
Publication date	October 6, 2023
Pages	92
ISBN	978-1632431257
Preceded by	Genghis Chan on Drums

Tell It Slant is a 2023 poetry collection by John Yau, published by Omnidawn. The book's poems tackle Yau's identities as a writer, artist and as an Asian American.^[1]

Contents

The book's title doubly refers to an Emily Dickinson line, "Tell all the truth but tell it slant" as well as to a racial slur against people of Asian descent.^[2] The aforementioned duality of poetic language and of racialization is one of the chief topics of Yau's book. In eight sections, the book's poems tackle language and racial identity while making mentions of both western and eastern artists like Philip K. Dick and Li Shangyin, respectively.^[1]

Critical reception

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly stated "Yau explores artistic process and the limits of communication, all under the specter of anti-Asian hate and racism" and concluded that "This wise and sometimes ominous collection shines."^[3]

Critics observed the idiosyncrasy and technical mastery within Lau's work. The Poetry Foundation observed Yau's spun relationships between language and social reality, calling his poetry "beguiling" and his accompanying prose "intimate modest, devastating".^[4] In Plume, Timothy Liu reflected on John Yau "as a bad-ass boy to emulate" for much of his "reading and writing life". Ultimately, Yau saw that the book wasn't merely just about being Asian American, or about being pigeonholed into ethnic identity, but rather about something much more profound and beyond: "Intimations of mortality suffuse these pages."^[5] In a brief review, the Washington Independent Review of Books called the book's poems "surprising, jarring, and weirdly wonderful" and lauded Yau as "one of our poetry elders" and "a seasoned craftsman".^[2]

References

1. Yau, John (October 6, 2023). Tell It Slant. Omnidawn. ISBN 978-1632431257.
2. "On Poetry: May 2024". Washington Independent Review of Books. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
3. "Tell It Slant by John Yau". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
4. Gore, Sylee. "Tell It Slant". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
5. Timothy, Liu (2024-08-26). "John Yau's "Tell It Slant" reviewed by Timothy Liu". Plume. Retrieved 2024-11-18.