Master

by Simon Shieh

Winner of the 2022 Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, selected by Terrance Hayes.

The debut collection from Simon Shieh, Master is a stark, surreal, and imagistic reckoning with a traumatic past. Master follows the speaker's struggle with masculinity from a martial arts school in upstate New York to a boxing academy in Beijing. Language emerges in this collection not as a neutral witness to a boy’s subjugation, but as the very tool of hegemony, though one which also holds the key to its own undoing, and therefore to freedom. As much as Master is the story of pain, it is also a journey to healing, illuminating that while violence can be our patrimony, it does not have to be our destiny.

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

Published September 12, 2023

Reviews

[K. Iver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved each poem individually, and all of the poems together. Shieh’s craft and execution are unmatched! I’ll be thinking about these voices and their grappling with violence, terror, and tenderness for a long time…

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy goddamn.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ended my 2023 reading with this ultra potent and rhetorically exquisite poetry collection. I definitely want to re-read it in the future.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems deals in the struggles of youth and the appeal of violence that sometimes develops, therefrom. I loved the language of this book - evocative without being querulous or gaudy.

The poems mix various approaches to free verse poetry and plays heavily with visual arrangement. I will say the line arrangement did sometimes go overboard as far as I was concerned, moving from establishing depth of pauses to making some poems difficult to read. That said, I loved the content of the poems and the artful use of language.

I'd highly recommend this collection for readers of poetry.

[Connie]

To an audience of pink ranunculus on the coffee table, I recited snippets and stanzas from Master, Simon Shieh’s breathtaking first collection exploring the body, dreams, obedience, and trauma, like “the little we know of memory / the little it knows of us” from “Mythomania” and, from “Clearing the Hills,” “As morning comes, I consider the origins / of sunlight. How far it must have come / to get here. How far it would have to go / to escape.”

from “How to Read Through a Reading Slump” via BOOK RIOT: https://bookriot.com/reading-through-...

[S P · Rating 3 out of 5]

from Mythomania
I imagine him reading this / telling me none of it happened

Nose broken from a punch, gushing—

I peel a red puddle off the ground
like a wet autumn leaf.

Using the smoke
from a soldering cigarette as thread,

I stitch it to the back
of the wounded boy.

Even in war, mercy.

After I finish, I look at his back,
admire my handiwork—

a window of burnt glass. (43)

[Micaela *CLONAZINE* · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect when I started this book and I had zero expectations but I was blown away by the raw sincerity of the poems.
It reminded me of Sarah Kane for the ability to make something so beautiful and delicate from such a traumatic and painful life experience.
I can't recommend it enough, definitely one of the contemporary poetry authors I enjoyed the most.
This collection of poems is full of pain, sorrow, violence written beautifully.

[Aether · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZINGly gorgeous. The way things were written was so abstract but incredibly beautiful. I took three pages of notes. I remember an image of the speaker peeling a pool of blood off the concrete and stitching it to a shadow or something and the whole book is like that- just incredible images that are impossible but so strong. Adored.

[Ally Ang · Rating 5 out of 5]

fuck.

[Lottie from book club · Rating 4 out of 5]

bloody hell

[Bradford Philen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every. Poem. Hits. Incredible collection. Must read!

[Andiver Castellanos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow the language in this collection— riveting !!

[Isaac Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

ate down

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

raw

[Jade Zhang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like Simon Shieh was listening to Ultraviolence by Lana when writing these poems

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

cannot recommend enough

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

gorgeous

[isra · Rating 5 out of 5]

harrowing and devastating, a collection engulfed in a pristine clarity. didn’t realize i was holding my breath the entire time. an unbelievable debut collection that truly is a must read.

[Jenny Tang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simon Shieh was the first person I met who encouraged to take my writing seriously. Years later, this book is one of the reasons that I take my reading seriously. Holy cow Simon, well done.