Hieu Nguyen

Not Here is a flight plan for escape and a map for navigating home; a queer Vietnamese American body in confrontation with whiteness, trauma, family, and nostalgia; and a big beating heart of a book. Nguyen’s poems ache with loneliness and desire and the giddy terrors of allowing yourself to hope for love, and revel in moments of connection achieved.

Not Here

Hieu Nguyen's bruising collection of poems, This Way to the Sugar, puts a blade and a microscope to nostalgia, tradition, race, apology, and sexuality, in order to find beauty in a flawed world. His work has been described as "an astounding testament to the power and necessity of confession." This powerful book asks whether it might be better "to leave the blade inside the body," whether "forgiveness will bleed you thin."

Hieu Nguyen

Books

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