{"product_id":"primordial-poems-9781644453261","title":"Primordial: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003eMai Der Vang's poetry--lyrically insistent and visually compelling--constitutes a groundbreaking investigation into the collective trauma and resilience experienced by Hmong people and communities, the ongoing cultural and environmental repercussions of the war in Vietnam, the lives of refugees afterward, and the postmemory carried by their descendants. \u003ci\u003ePrimordial \u003c\/i\u003eis a crucial turn to the ecological and generational impact of violence, a powerful and rousing meditation on climate, origin, and fate. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith profound and attentive care, Vang addresses the plight of the saola, an extremely rare and critically endangered animal native to the Annamite Mountains in Laos and Vietnam. The saola looks like an antelope, with two long horns, and is related to wild cattle, though the saola has been placed in a genus of its own. Remarkably, the saola has only been known to the outside world since 1992, and sightings are so rare that it has now been more than a decade since the last known image of one was captured in a camera trap photo in 2013. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrimordial \u003c\/i\u003eexamines the saola's relationship to Hmong refugee identity and cosmology and a shared sense of exile, precarity, privacy, and survival. Can a war-torn landscape and memory provide sanctuary, and what are the consequences for our climate, our origins, our ability to belong to a homeland? Written during a difficult pregnancy and postpartum period, Vang's poems are urgent stays against extinction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Mai Der Vang\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Graywolf Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/04\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 144\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.70lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 6.90w x 0.50d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781644453261\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/21\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMai Der Vang is the author of two previous poetry books: \u003ci\u003eAfterland\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award, and \u003ci\u003eYellow Rain\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Mai Der Vang \/ Paperback \/ English","offer_id":47282724307101,"sku":"9781644453261","price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_335990b6-9df4-4970-bc78-e40aefa77880.jpg?v=1759955326","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/primordial-poems-9781644453261","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}