Documents

By Jan-Henry Gray and D. A. Powell

First printing: 3000 copies.

Documents was selected by D.A. Powell as the winner of the 17th annual A. Poulin, Jr. Prize. The poem “Maid Poem #7: HR” won a Lannan Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets in 2015.

This title is part of BOA’s New Poets of America Series, which have seen strong sales in recent seasons. Previous Poulin winners in this series have seen outstanding attention from The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, The Rumpus, Forward Reviews, etc.

The foreword by D.A. Powell gives a powerful narrative of the author’s biography, which gives context and draws readers into the collection. According to Powell, “these biographical facts are the supporting architectural elements upon which the house is built. The collection is both a documentary and a documentation organized around facts and necessities, forgeries and truths.”

Jan-Henry says of the experiences in this collection, “I was born in the Philippines, grew up in California, and lived undocumented for more than 32 years in the United States. I am queer and for many queer undocumented people, this creates a double invisibility. Many people talk about this experience as coming out twice. And this is true. Depending on the context, it might be easier to come out as gay, other times it’s easier to come out as undocumented. Either way, my day-to-day life happens in multiple ways—I am not just the facts of my life. I have lied on forms. And won awards. I have been cheated by lawyers. I wander in museums. I am obsessed with tennis. I don’t believe in monogamy. I love film. I pickle vegetables. I bake. I drink. I think. I dream. I fantasize. I cook. I write. I wrote a book that I hope has all of this in it.”

Gray is the inaugural winner of the Undocupoets Fellowship from Sibling Rivalry Press and has received fellowships from the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. He has also received awards from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Columbia College Chicago.

HOT TOPICS: Immigration, LGBT identity, human rights.

Gray’s writing on identity as a queer undocumented immigrant of color adds a Filipino perspective to the ongoing conversation between poets like Chen Chen, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Danez Smith, Ocean Vuong, and others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781942683759

Jan-Henry Gray

Jan-Henry Gray was born in Quezon City, Philippines, and moved to California with his family when he was six years old. He lived undocumented in the U.S. for more than 32 years. He received his BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and his MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. He is the recipient of the inaugural Undocupoets Fellowship, the 2014 Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award, the Juniper Summer Writing Institute Fellowship, and the 2016 Lannan Prize from the Academy of American Poets. His work has appeared in The Rumpus, Poetry Foundation, Poets.org, Tupelo Quarterly, Colorado Review, Fourteen Hills, New City, Puerto del Sol, Southern Humanities Review, Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color, and other journals. He lives in Chicago with his husband where he writes and co-hosts events featuring writers, performers, artists, and musicians.

Book preview

DOCUMENTS

WINNER, 2018 A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE

SELECTED BY D. A. POWELL

DOCUMENTS

JAN-HENRY GRAY

FOREWORD BY D. A. POWELL

A. POULIN, JR. NEW POETS OF AMERICA SERIES, NO. 42

BOA EDITIONS, LTD. ROCHESTER, NY 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Jan-Henry Gray

Foreword copyright © 2019 by D. A. Powell

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition

19 20 21 22 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For information about permission to reuse any material from this book, please contact The Permissions Company at www.permissionscompany.com or e-mail [e-mail].

Publications by BOA Editions, Ltd.—a not-for-profit corporation under section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code—are made possible with funds from a variety of sources, including public funds from the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the County of Monroe, NY. Private funding sources include the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; the Mary S. Mulligan Charitable Trust; the Rochester Area Community Foundation; the Ames-Amzalak Memorial Trust in memory of Henry Ames, Semon Amzalak, and Dan Amzalak; and contributions from many individuals nationwide. See Colophon on page 96 for special individual acknowledgments.

Cover Design: Sandy Knight

Cover Art: Magic Eye by Jonathan Molina-Garcia

Interior Design and Composition: Richard Foerster

BOA Logo: Mirko

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gray, Jan-Henry, author.

Title: Documents / Jan-Henry Gray ; Forward By D. A. Powell.

Description: First edition. | Rochester, NY : BOA Editions, Ltd., [2019] | Series: A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series ; No. 42 | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018050082 (print) | LCCN 2018051623 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942683759 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942683742 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Classification: LCC PS3607.R3945 (ebook) | LCC PS3607.R3945 A6 2019 (print) | DDC 811/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018050082

BOA Editions, Ltd.

250 North Goodman Street, Suite 306

Rochester, NY 14607

www.boaeditions.org

A. Poulin, Jr., Founder (1938–1996)

CONTENTS

Foreword: Documents Unsealed

egress

Maid Poem #1: The Housemaid

April 1984

XXX-XX-0142

I-797-C

Missing Document

Balikbayan

Across the Pacific Ocean

Mackerel

Maid Poem #2

A Migration

In The Store with Beautiful Things

Maid Poem #3: Before a Feast for Maids

Maid Poem #4: The Day of the Feast for Maids

In the Fields, I Learned a Hymn

Sapling

d. 1997

River Capture

On Translation

Maid Poem #5: Rita

Maid Poem #6: Proscenium

California Triptych

I’m a Good Person Because My Childhood Was

Fine

The Dream Act

Maid Poem #7: HR

Terminal Couplet

Love Poem With a Hole in It

Hindi Ko Alam Ng Sasabihin Ko

For Tanzania

PNW

Crush, Supermarket, California

EXAQUA

Answer No

Acknowledgments

Frank Quizon Gray Jr. III

Birth Certificate

Immigration and Naturalization Services

Notes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Colophon

FOREWORD: Documents Unsealed

to make an art from documents

that twin a life to mine.

—Jan-Henry Gray

Open me a refuge where I may be renewed.

—Muriel Rukeyser

When he was still a minor, Jan-Henry Gray learned from his parents that he lacked legal status in the country he had known as home since he was six. Born in Quezon City, Philippines, Gray had immigrated with his parents to the United States. And though they worked hard to provide for their family, they had been underequipped to jump through