Ownself Say Ownself

by Joshua Ip

Ownself Say Ownself is a chaotic collection of new and selected poetry by Joshua Ip. Half of it is 44 poems salvaged from the award-winning, out-of- print wilderness of his first five-ish collections, marked-up with mischievous metric marginalia in the newly invented form of the tilde (tl;dr). The next half is 44 new translations, performance pieces and formal experiments written over the course of a practice research PhD. So you get the best of six-ish books for the price of one, which fortuitously sums to 88 poems.

See satirical singlish sonnets scrabble with spurned spoken word and shady pseudo-song-translations alongside snide summaries, split-screen cinemas, Song-dynasty susurrus, Scottish-civil-servant-salutations and circumlocutory sex scenes, in a singsong celebration of spurious sesquilinguality!

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy so young already got greatest hits collection, with some new stuff, including translations. Witty, moving, intelligent and self-effacing, it's a great introduction to Joshua's work.

PS: He did not pay me or bribe me with ice-cream to write this.