A BLIND SALMON by Julia Wong Kcomt
A Blind Salmon, a poetry collection by tusán/Chinese Peruvian writer Julia Wong Kcomt, was published by Phoneme Media / Deep Vellum Books in July 2024. Tusán writer Julia Wong Kcomt’s sixth collection of poetry is her first full-length collection available in English. Written while she was living in Buenos Aires, the collection crosses borders between Berlin, Buenos Aires, Chepén, Tijuana, and Vienna. It takes up sameness and difference, shot through with desert sand.
In these poems, Wong Kcomt renders homage to writers such as the Peruvian poet and visual artist Jorge Eduardo Eielson, who died in Milan as she was writing them. She fingers the filmy line between poetry and narrative prose to build a lyrical menagerie all her own. Named one of Ms. magazine’s “Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of ’23-’24.” Translated from Spanish. Published bilingually.
EXCERPTS
“A Blind Salmon, by Tusán writer Julia Wong Kcomt, who died earlier this year, unfolds on the scale of the spectacle—dramatic, even shocking images are presented in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. […] Shyue is, in fact, more than equal to the task of bringing the various elements of Kcomt’s work together, while marking these poems with her own imprint.”
—Janani Ambikapathy, Poetry’s Harriet Books
“The poems in A Blind Salmon seem to become increasingly charged with life and energy each time they are revisited. Kcomt’s speakers are bold and unapologetic, reaching out with language that is sensual, unexpected, unsettling.”
—Joseph Schreiber, roughghosts
Tags: Julia Wong Kcomt, Spanish, Peru, verse, poetry, book, poetry collection, Asian diaspora, print, bilingual