You Are Not Dead

by Wendy Xu

Poetry. Asian American Studies. "In YOU ARE NOT DEAD Wendy Xu breaks all the old rules that have never done us any favors anyway. She writes beautifully, noticing who we are, and letting us see ourselves with a little more humanity, a little more humor, a little more humility. I'm happy to have read this book."--James Tate"There's a wild and wondrous poet plundering-through our lives, collecting the oddest and most significant things, turning our thoughts toward things we couldn't have known before she turned us toward them. YOU ARE NOT DEAD is precisely how this book can get you to feel and that is an almost otherworldly power. The poet who imagines and builds these poems is irresistible."--Dara Wier"That fluctuating space between the temporary and the infinite is an erogenous zone made all the more enticing when articulated so eloquently. 'We have a lifespan and O how we live it out.' Wendy Xu's poems posit for us a future, a presence, a body resistant to the ravages of time. Mortality is a far planet. Here in Xu's work, we are passionately, and gratefully, alive."--D. A. Powell

Genres: Poetry, Asian American

84 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

Wendy Xu is a poet, editor, and professor, most recently the author of The Past (Wesleyan, 2021), and Phrasis (2017), named one of the 10 Best Poetry Books of 2017 by the New York Times Book Review.

Her debut collection You Are Not Dead (2013), was named by Poets & Writers Magazine as one of the year’s Top 10 debuts. Xu was awarded the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry in 2011, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation in 2014, and her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Granta, Tin House, Poetry, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Conjunctions, and widely elsewhere.

Born in Shandong, China, she holds an MFA from the Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She has been on creative writing faculty at the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Columbia University, New York University, and is currently Assistant Professor of Writing (Poetry) at The New School in New York City.

Reviews

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is literally one of the best books of poetry I've ever read. how do these sentences make such perfect beautiful sense together. Magic magic magic

[Biscuits · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are abt touching--pieces of poems touching, human body parts touching, two voices (or more touching), a poet somewhere reaching out to another poet or a reader or a sad person on the street somewhere, a human heart touching itself. These are gorgeous poems.

[Alex Jiménez · Rating 5 out of 5]

like a breath of fresh air

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

felt like it was fresh—was not ~poetry-y~ I liked it a lot and would recommend

[Sebastian Olsen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I haven’t read this and never will. I own this and I’ll tell you why. The author’s friend was an adjunct freshman english professor I had at a small private college in Western Massachusetts. One of the units was analyzing poetry and he instructed the class to purchase this book and write an essay on one of the poems. This particular book; from an author no one’s heard of. Doesn’t take much to put two and two together. Well now the author’s a full time professor and Mr B. Foley is in Colorado last I heard doing his phD. Probably not going to be the last stunts these two pull.

[Courtney S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Greater care and attention appeared to be paid to the titles than the content of the poems. One of the few works of poetry devoid of a single line I felt drawn to enough to quote it in my review.

I may revisit this another time in hopes of understanding how there is even a single five star review.

[Tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book of poetry. Hands down. I think I've read this upwards of 30 times and never imagine myself stopping.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable collection of poems that run a little obscure for me at times but are punctuated by fine language and wonderful images and moments.

[Alyssa Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5/5 (subject to change)

[Annie]

Faves:
- Please Stand A While Longer in the Vast Amazing Dark
- If You Find that Living is a Little Bit Sad

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply beautiful.

[addy ☆.。.:・° · Rating 5 out of 5]

honest to god rewired something in my brain

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exploration of contingencies, fragments, the disconnections of contemporary life. Xu's voice isn't quite like any other I've encountered, mirroring the thematic center of her work. It's deceptively straightforward, rarely straying far from a seemingly direct syntax or vocabulary. What's interesting is the way the details of the sentences and fragments are consistently surprising, sort of like images from the edge of a dream. It's very much a 21st century vision of people reaching for one another without making contact they trust. I would have liked more of the bigger social picture, but that's clearly not what Xu's interested in, except by indirection. The best poems include "Here in This New Place Is Your Memory," "If You Think That Living Is a Little Bit Sad," "The Totally Number of Things that Matter Is On the Rise," "Things Other People are Good At" (which exemplifies her quiet humor), and my favorite, because it comes closest to making the personal-social connection, "Poem for Inappropriate Caring."

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m digging into the volumes that I purchased at #AWP14. This book happened to be on the top of the pile. I do love the voice--it is one that I feel I’ve been reading more often lately? These remind me of poems by Christopher DeWeese I read recently. The line break aesthetic here is interesting to me--I would break the lines much differently, but then, I’m a more formal poet. And of course, I love what feels like the Tate/Wier influence.

Some of my favorite moments:

“before a city can become
spectacular its buildings must put on
an iron gown.”

“Here there is sacrifice on the doorstep
of beauty.”

“I am thinking about kicking what
I expect in the shin.”

“you and me are something
like a forest.”

“what if your face was a passionate treatise?”

“My mouth is a peach pit of everything
I’ve ever said.”

“how often will you demand
silence before the reveal?”

“If your dinner caught fire
in your stomach.”

“wind plucks a flower
for sailing.”

“what if I am on fire and
I like it?”

[Carrie Lorig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually think 4.5 stars is more accurate. This book is insanely well put together. Xu's attention to the SENTENCE within poetic forms is rather unparalleled at the moment for me. They are always aware of each other, but are also importantly, on their own. They are aware of the whole BODY of the poem at all times, but are equally just as likely to change what that body is very suddenly. The sound of these poems is beautiful, gentle and sharp and like songs I used to play on the piano in staccato. I actually think it's difficult to be precise and gentle and still have it feel rich. Xu digs into everyday brushes with merges / shadows of joy and pain. She is not naively for joy, but she is also unapologetic about her quiet stumping for light. It does gorgeous things to your sentences. She is delicate and woman and party.

[Georgia Meagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Poems I read for class. I'm still not much of a poetry person but I'm slowly beginning to appreciate it a bit more than I did at the beginning of last semester. I liked part three the best out of this little book. I do recommend this if you're super into poetry though!

[Matthew Hinea · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of the poems are too visually heavily imo, or they are surreal in a contrived, random-seeming way. but wendy xu's more narrative poems are like, some of my favorite poems, ever.

[MLG · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read my review here

[Susie Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is nice to read a collection of poems where you can see the threads that connect each piece, but the worlds that you experience when reading are so unique.

[Stacey Teague · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://staceyteague.tumblr.com/post/1...

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had trouble finishing this collection. Basic grammar and syntax seem broken for no forgivable reason nor purpose that exist within poems or across them. A pity, given that the ideas that Xu approaches are both fresh and inventive, alas the lack of grammar impede their clear communication.

When Xu throws the veil of conceit away, she is able to write some really interesting poems you feel invested in. They are, however, few and far between. I finished the collection rather frustrated.

[André Habet]

for me, the work here felt somewhere between the work of Rupi Kaur and Heather Christie. I loved the language and whimsy, but it often left me feeling hollow, which I don't get the sense was the intention.