{"product_id":"the-symmetry-of-fish-isbn-9780143137252","title":"The Symmetry of Fish","description":"\u003cb\u003e“All hits no skips. I was incredibly moved by these poems.” —Roxane Gay, via Goodreads\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom National Poetry Series winner Su Cho, chosen by Paige Lewis, a debut poetry collection about immigration, memory, and a family’s lexicon\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLanguage and lore are at the core of \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e, a moving debut about coming-of-age in the middle of nowhere. With striking and tender insight, it seeks to give voice to those who have been denied their stories, and examines the way phrases and narratives are passed down through immigrant families—not diluted over time, but distilled into potency over generations. In this way, a family's language is not lost but continuously remade, hitched to new associations, and capable of blooming anew, with the power to cut across space and time to unearth buried memories. The poems in \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e insist that language is first and foremost a bodily act; even if our minds can't recall a word or a definition, if we trust our mouths, expression will find us—though never quite in the forms we expect.\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Beautifully evocative . . . captures small, meaningful moments in life.” \u003cb\u003e—NPR, “Books We Love”\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This poetry is quite marvelous. All hits no skips. I was incredibly moved by these poems about family and immigration and the relationship we have to languages. I particularly loved the poem about translating for parents. I look forward to more from Su Cho.” \u003cb\u003e—Roxane Gay, via Goodreads\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Cho's] constructions and powerful content will surely appeal to all those who love poetry. Beyond the investigation of cultural and national languages is [the] family lexicon: how do we express ourselves to each other, what do we hold onto, what must we release as we make our way into a new life, a new world?” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eChicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Cho treats her material with a light, magical touch . . . [\u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish \u003c\/i\u003eis] a portrait of family and immigration that is tender without ever becoming maudlin.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eCalifornia Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Cho’s debut collection is a mesmerizing mélange of wondrous imagery and sharp irony. So much of the book’s beauty comes from its thoughtful treatment of language . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e captures the poignancy of the mundane.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBook Riot\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rich with a lyric detail and precision.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePeriodicities\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e] is a collection abundant with emotion and a wonderful tenderness, giving readers the opportunity to hear the stories of [Cho's] Korean ancestors and her experiences as a child of immigrant parents . . . There are often elements of humor here . . . These resonant poems of heritage and self are recommended for all collections.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A vivid, folkloric debut . . . stamped with striking imagery . . . Cho captures the complexity of being an immigrant child . . . The lessons and culinary efforts of women—mothers, grandmothers, ancestors—is a running theme . . . Infused with bittersweet nostalgia, Cho’s arresting work captures the full emotional spectrum in poems that are sometimes charming, sometimes haunting, but always memorable.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Su Cho’s \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e introduces a poet with the intuition of a musician and the vividness of a painter. This gorgeous debut is suffused with  the kind of visceral, lyrical poetry that fills the air with song as it reimagines Korean myth through a more personal history. Her poetic vision is as generous as it is clear, and the title’s symmetry also applies to the colorful opportunities Cho discovers in Midwestern dioramas, tangerine trees, and fish heads in the sink. She finds comfort in spaces most of us don't want to linger. Her poems are celebrations of the world even as they question what we’ve done to deserve our place in it. What a gift from a truly gifted poet.” \u003cb\u003e—Adrian Matejka, Editor of \u003ci\u003ePoetry\u003c\/i\u003e magazine and author of \u003ci\u003eSomebody Else Sold the World \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In her debut collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e, Su Cho presents us with a speaker who attempts to separate seemingly unlike things: the religious and flippant, the fishbone from the flesh, herself from her memories. In one poem Cho writes of a desire ‘to isolate these moments \/ pipette them into test tubes \/ whirl them in a centrifuge.’ Lucky for us, this turns out to be an impossible endeavor. Instead, we are graced with a glorious combination of the incompatible—Slim Jim crosses are treated with same reverence befitting any sacred relic. The speaker manages to be both an objective observer—recording the stories of family, friends, ghosts—and an unintentional catalyst—dropping an armful of fruit or choking on a fishbone and disrupting the silence of a moment, putting her own mark on the memory. ‘This is a collection of accidents,’ Su Cho writes in \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e. I wouldn’t want it any other way.” \u003cb\u003e—Paige Lewis, author of \u003ci\u003eSpace Struck\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Su Cho’s debut collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e, is a moving and convincing meditation on longing, and yearning, and reaching. Longing across language and generation and tradition and family and bodies, these poems reach and reach toward who they love—or who they wish they could love more.  When she writes, 'All we did was open ourselves \/ like peonies reaching for the light,' I think not only what a stunning line in a book made of stunning lines inside of stunning poems, but I think, yes, that’s what the best poems, these poems, are: they are like peonies, reaching for the light.” \u003cb\u003e—Ross Gay, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Delights \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Su Cho’s \u003ci\u003eThe Symmetry of Fish\u003c\/i\u003e casts such corpuscles of light to the Korean and Korean American imagination. Cho’s poems invoke the tongue’s memory to give language to the unnamable: 가시, 밤, 쌀, 살, 사랑니, 봉숭아. Lightness and stillness expand with each word—and from every malady emerges a cure.” \u003cb\u003e—E. J. Koh, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Magical Language of Others\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e A Lesser Love\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eSu Cho\u003c\/b\u003e is a poet and essayist born in South Korea and raised in Indiana. She has an MFA in Poetry from Indiana University and a PhD from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. \u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eShe has served as the editor-in-chief of \u003ci\u003eIndiana Review, Cream City Review\u003c\/i\u003e and has served as guest editor for \u003ci\u003ePoetry\u003c\/i\u003e magazine. Her work has been featured in \u003ci\u003ePoetry, New England Review, Gulf Coast, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eOrion\u003c\/i\u003e; the 2021 \u003ci\u003eBest American Poetry \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eBest New Poets \u003c\/i\u003eanthologies; and elsewhere. A finalist for the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Poetry Fellowship, recipient of a National Society of Arts and Letters Award, and a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, she is currently a visiting assistant professor at Franklin \u0026amp; Marshall College.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300474179813,"sku":"NP9780143137252","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143137252.jpg?v=1767741763","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-symmetry-of-fish-isbn-9780143137252","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}