Mercenary English

by Mercedes Eng

Mercedes Eng’s first book is a risky and profoundly unsettling work of “auto-cartography,” documenting the struggles and politics of everyday life in Vancouver, foregrounding the literal and figurative violence behind the euphemism “missing women,” resistance to the Olympic-Industrial Complex, and other legacies of colonialism that continue to haunt the fragile “City of Glass.”

a mercenary pursuit to unsettle, rechart, and set ships in motion. woman at the helm. “dead, almost and alive” making the money, women hold it down. honey cake. workshirts mended, an arsenal in her pocket, at the ready, everyday the frontlines. body of work on the table, more weapons in the drawer. “words are confusing…what’s the one for the big men dressed in boots and helmets holding shields, holding assault rifles?” interlocking violences to be disarmed, we call war. with all her might Eng speaks from experience, intervenes to right the vertical, spits hard words that shine like justice and the concrete trembles. “the eagles know”
— Cecily Nicholson

she knows complicit explicit illicit attack apology abattoir she is poet opticon sposed she maps narrative down her turquoise hustle her vortex velocity slams scenes frontline back alley corner she is fierce flash authentic arsenal of poems she chants protest she lookin tight women in grid stare surveillance back she speaks sex sweet easy she says come in come out fill in whole sisters now know how Mercedes spells out stasis spance how disappeared women scream shout volatile skin of text strikes oscillates back upside down fist upward soars improbable limits of the expressible she is percussive what comes round
— Marie Annharte Baker

Genres: Poetry

110 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Mercedes Eng teaches and writes in Vancouver, on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. She is the author of two chapbooks, February 2010 (2010) and knuckle sandwich (2011), and of Mercenary English (CUE Books, 2013; Mercenary Press, 2016), a long poem about violence and resistance in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver. Her writing has appeared in Jacket 2, The Downtown East, The Volcano, on the sides of the Burrard and Granville Bridges as contributions to public art projects, and in the collectively produced chapbooks, r/ally (No One Is Illegal), Surveillance, and M’aidez (Press Release). She is currently working on a women’s prison reader and a detective novel set in her grandfather’s Chinatown supper club, circa 1948.

Reviews

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible collection of poetry. "Knuckle Sandwich" is the true star of this book. That one is pure poem meets resistance and it feels both powerful and vulnerable.

[Joel Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the real deal.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fierce, important, vancouver-land

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not me crying already in the first 5 pages

[Onur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read “Autocartography”