The Beautiful Immunity - by Karen An-Hwei Lee (Paperback)

About the Book

"The Beautiful Immunity is a quartet of motifs about faith and witness in an age of crisis, divided into four sections: "The Millennial Year of the Superbloom," "Ode to My Namesake on the Other Side of the Universe," "Dear Millennium, on the Beautiful Immunity," and "On Meridians of Love and Distance." With a radiant, beatific impulse, Lee's luminous poems yearn for healing and redemption from spiritual blight in an epoch of collapse. "In this ringing and consummate work, Lee reconnects us with Christianity's foundations... demonstrating that adamant hope can translate into vigorous action through language applied in the most incisive and persuasive ways." -Cole Swenson "I've often wondered if the enthusiasm of Blake or the humility of George Herbert could possibly have survived the coarse depredations of this 21st century. Thanks to the poems Karen An-hwei Lee, I wonder no more. All shall be well. In The Beautiful Immunity, ecstasy never fails to defy deprivation. Desire never yields to despondency. One blossom, one syllable or simply a taste of spice on the tongue can prompt a beautiful vastation and an honest prayer... There are wings on these words." -Donald Revell "Is there a purer lyricist in contemporary American poetry than Karen An-hwei Lee? The Beautiful Immunity is in part a meditation on the lyric tradition, built around the contention that 'Modes of witness / expose our inadequacy, the human, ' and in part a revel inside that same tradition, an opulent feast at the table set by the five senses and the mind and heart they serve. To speak opulence, to praise with a lavish tongue: this is the beauty of Lee's singular vision, as it is also a pledge of her faith in both Giver and given." -G.C. Waldrep"--

Book Synopsis

A collection of poems that blesses the reader with a spirit of hope, solace, and inspiration in their own seasons of adversity.

The Beautiful Immunity asks how we create good in an imperfect world of fallible souls. Spare and formally daring, these poems were refined through the catastrophes of wildfires, recession, and a major public health crisis through the hope of a beautiful immunity--an everlasting salve for the lost. This slender volume reads as the culmination of more than a decade's worth of labor, documenting large-scale social, cultural, and political upheavals, as well as the moment when the word "anthropause" floated indelibly into the world's vocabulary.

Review Quotes

"I've often wondered if the enthusiasm of Blake or the humility of George Herbert could possibly have survived the coarse depredations of this 21st century. Thanks to the poems of Karen An-Hwei Lee, I wonder no more. All shall be well. In The Beautiful Immunity, ecstasy never fails to defy deprivation. Desire never yields to despondency. One blossom, one syllable or simply a taste of spice on the tongue can prompt a beautiful vastation and an honest prayer. There is every possibility of greatness in this book. There are wings on these words."-- "Donald Revell"

"In this ringing and consummate work, Lee reconnects us with Christianity's foundations as a resistance movement. In line with thinkers such as Leo Tolstoy and Martin Luther King Jr., she foregrounds its commitments to non-violent civic activism, radical inclusion, and the relentless pursuit of peace, which connect it to so many other faith systems across the globe that are similarly dedicated to enabling hope to overcome greed. She then turns this lens on today's crucial issues, particularly climate change and its explosive effects, demonstrating that adamant hope can translate into vigorous action through language applied in the most incisive and persuasive ways."-- "Cole Swensen"

About the Author

Karen An-hwei Lee is the author of Duress, Rose is a Verb: Neo-Georgics, In Medias Res (winner of the Norma Farber First Book Award), and Phyla of Joy and Ardor, both also published by Tupelo Press. She authored two novels, Sonata in K and The Maze of Transparencies. Lee's translations of Li Qingzhao's writing, Doubled Radiance: Poetry & Prose of Li Qingzhao, comprise the first volume in English to collect Li's work in both genres. Her book of literary criticism, Anglophone Literatures in the Asian Diaspora: Literary Transnationalism and Translingual Migrations, was selected for the Cambria Sinophone World Series. Lee currently lives in greater Chicago.