Here I Am Burn Me - by Kimberly Nguyen (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Kimberly Nguyen's voice extends a poignant invitation, beckoning us to step into her intricate poetic universe where time and trauma gracefully entwine.
With remarkable precision and vividness, Nguyen's discerning gaze captures every nuance, fearlessly dissecting the complexities of intergenerational trauma, family battles, and the ache of heartbreak.
Within these verses, hope blooms and yearning resonates, as the poems extend their hand toward the abyss, seeking connection and conveying the reassuring message of shared experience. Nguyen's words envelop the reader, infusing them with the promise of a future emancipated from the weight of past wounds, a testament to the healing power of her prose.

Review Quotes

"For so many of us, pursuing the life we want, and finally loving ourselves for who we are and dream of being, means hurting and leaving behind those we care for most. Imagining a new world can seem more painful than putting up with the status quo or the silence in which increasingly frightening fears reside. How, then, might any of us find freedom? How might we achieve more for ourselves than survival? This debut poetry collection from Kimberly Nguyen is a meditation on these questions. With remarkable emotional intensity and intelligence, the speaker of these poems maps a journey from the loss and loneliness of being, for example, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees in America to the wonder and, of course, the wound of seeing herself anew, of changing her perception of her history and her world. Through poetic series that demonstrate the cyclical nature of recovery, and through poems about the making of poetry itself, Nguyen 'saw a shadow and shined a light on it' so that, eventually and inevitably, the reader can see 'your own face staring back.'" - Paul Tran, author of All the Flowers Kneeling

About the Author

Kimberly Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American poet and the author of ghosts in the stalks and Here I Am Burn Me . She is originally from Omaha, Nebraska but currently living in New York City. She is a graduate of Vassar College where she holds a degree in both English and Russian Studies. Additionally, she studied abroad at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. She is a recipient of the Beatrice Daw Brown Prize and two Best of the Net nominations, and she was a finalist for Kundiman's 2021 Mentorship Lab and the Asian American Writer's Workshop 2022 Margins Fellowship. She was a 2021 Emerging Voices Fellow at PEN America and was formerly a 2022- 2023 Poetry Coalition Fellow.In addition to poetry, Kimberly was a journalist at The Miscellany News. Her articles have garnered attention in the community as a form of activism and have been a catalyst for institutional change. She aspires to be a full-time poet and eventually wants to hold an advanced degree in poetry.