Evening Oracle - by Brandon Shimoda (Paperback)

About the Book

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. In EVENING ORACLE, Brandon Shimoda encounters shadows, specters, and women--young and old, living and undead--and finds himself standing in a graveyard in the middle of a rice field in a town that no longer exists. EVENING ORACLE is composed of poems originally handwritten at night before sleep in the beds of friends and strangers in Japan (2011-2012), and passages from emails and letters to and from friends and family on the subjects of fruit, vegetables, and dying grandparents. Featuring original poems by Dot Devota and Hiromi Itō, and correspondence by Etel Adnan, Don Mee Choi, Phil Cordelli, Youna Kwak, Quinn Latimer, Mary Ruefle, Rob Schlegel, and Karen McAlister Shimoda, among others.

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2016 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, EVENING ORACLE is composed of poems originally handwritten at night before sleep in the beds of friends and strangers in Japan (2011-2012), and passages from emails and letters to and from friends and family on the subjects of fruit, vegetables, and dying grandparents. Featuring original poems by Dot Devota and Hiromi Itō, and correspondence by Etel Adnan, Don Mee Choi, Phil Cordelli, Youna Kwak, Quinn Latimer, Mary Ruefle, Rob Schlegel, and Karen McAlister Shimoda, among others.

About the Author

Brandon Shimoda is the author of several books of poetry and prose, including two memoirs of Japanese America, THE GRAVE ON THE WALL and THE AFTERLIFE IS LETTING GO (both from City Lights, 2019/2024), and HYDRA MEDUSA (Nightboat Books, 2023). He's the co-editor, with Brynn Saito, of THE GATE OF MEMORY, an anthology of poetry on Nikkei wartime incarceration, written by descendants of the WWII prisons and camps. EVENING ORACLE was originally handwritten at night before sleep in the beds of friends and strangers in Japan.