When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

By Chen Chen and Jericho Brown

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY

WINNER OF THE A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE

A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2017 SELECTION: POETRY & LITERATURE

ON NPR BOOKS'S LIST OF "POETRY TO PAY ATTENTION TO: 2017'S BEST VERSE"

A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 2017 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE SELECTION

In this ferocious and tender debut, Chen Chen investigates inherited forms of love and family—the strained relationship between a mother and son, the cost of necessary goodbyes—all from Asian American, immigrant, and queer perspectives. Holding all accountable, this collection fully embraces the loss, grief, and abundant joy that come with charting one's own path in identity, life, and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781942683346

Chen Chen

Chen Chen was born in Xiamen, China and has lived in Western Massachusetts, Upstate New York, and West Texas. His debut poetry collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was long-listed for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, the Thom Gunn Award, the GLCA New Writers Award, and the Texas League of Writers’ Book Award. In 2019, Bloodaxe Books published the UK edition. He is also the author of a collection of essays, In Cahoots with the Rabbit God (Noemi Press, forthcoming 2023), and he has written four chapbooks, most recently GESUNDHEIT! (Glass Poetry Press, 2019), a collaboration with Sam Herschel Wein. Chen’s work appears in three editions of The Best American Poetry, and his poems have been translated into French, Greek, Russian, and Spanish. He has received two Pushcart Prizes and fellowships from Kundiman and the National Endowment for the Arts. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from Texas Tech University. He teaches at Brandeis University as the Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence. He also serves on the poetry faculty for the low-residency MFA programs at New England College and Stonecoast. He edits the Twitter-based journal the lickety~split and with a brilliant team, he edits Underblong. He lives with his partner, Jeff Gilbert, and their pug, Mr. Rupert Giles.

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Reviews for When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

[greeniezona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I ordered this when someone was raving over the author in my fandom twitter. Once I bought it, I realized my friend Heather had recommended it to me YEARS ago. Oops! However it got to me, I LOVED THIS. When I read a poetry collection I take little notes on my favorite poems to make it easier to find them later and I took notes on SO MANY of these poems. But I am going to let one of my favorite excerpts talk for me:...Trying to getover what my writer friend said, All youwrite about is being gay or Chinese.Wish I had thought to say to him, All youwrite about is being whiteor an asshole. Wish I had said, No, Ialready write about everything --& everything is salt, noise, struggle, hair,carrying, kisses, leaving, myth, popcornmothers, bad habits, questions.So full of joy and seeking and finding and sticking by your own truth. LOVED THIS.