To Compare

by Xuela Zhang

A bracing and variegated debut, Xuela Zhang’s To Compare inhabits the fraught condition of living in and through translation in the age of globalization, social media, and the Chinese-American neo-Cold War. In To Compare, Zhang navigates the quagmire of transnational life, where one is always both here and away. “Has language/passed you by/like a curvy city/or shielded/and isolated you,/an illuminated vehicle/against the flooding/tenors of light?” Zhang writes in To Compare, reflecting on the nature of translation—both linguistic and otherwise— as a way of life. Disjunctive, alluring, To Compare poetically represents our contemporary age.

Genres: Poetry

81 pages, Paperback

Published April 28, 2026

Reviews

[Stacey ˗ ღ ˎˊ˗ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5⭐️

Fonograf strikes again with this delicate, cerebral debut collection. The poet walks between two worlds as a Chinese transnational academic in America. She adeptly describes her spaces as they overlap in terms of language, translation, cultural context and digital communication. The sea, light, and the spirit are consistent themes across the work. Her verse is grounded in terms of what is cohesive across the human experience, making this a critical piece of the moment in America. High praise to Zhang for this brilliant first effort.

Great thanks to Fonograf/NYU Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review in advance.

[Quilted.reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Compare by Xuela Zhang is a slim book with a lot to say. At just 81 pages, it’s incredibly doable, but don’t let the length fool. This book will stay with you after finishing it.Zhang’s debut explores what it means to live in translation: between languages, between countries, between versions of the self. The poems move through globalization, social media, and the tense reality of Chinese American identity in a modern political landscape that often demands clarity where none exists. This is a book about being “both here and away,” about how language can illuminate you while also isolating you and how identity is constantly negotiated rather than fixed.The writing is full of turns and quiet moments that ask the reader to slow down and sit with uncertainty. it’s emotional, cultural, and deeply personal. Zhang treats it as a way of life, one shaped by movement, surveillance, memory, and the pressure to explain yourself in a world that prefers simple narratives.What makes To Compare so powerful is how clearly it speaks to our contemporary moment. In an age of borders, algorithms, and global tension, this book reminds us that many people live their entire lives navigating in between spaces. Reading it feels like being invited into that experience rather than observing it from a distance.This is a must read if you’re serious about diversifying your library not as a trend, but as a practice of understanding. To Compare expands the way we think about language, belonging, and identity. Short, striking, and deeply relevant, this is a book I’m really glad I picked up.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main beauty of these poems is in their clarity. The poet shows a strong talent for distilling complex experience into simple language and she works with language itself as part of her subject matter in a thoughtful way. Initially, this book left me unimpressed. Again, the quiet clarity of the language is consistently a strong point but only rarely did a line stand out as particularly meaningful, poignant, or well-written. The poems do interest me in their unassuming thoughtfulness when it comes to translation and crosscultural exchange. The poet seems to be writing from a natural place with a real earnest connection to her subject matter. The material gets stronger as the book goes on and by the end I appreciated how well the poems comment on and respond to other art as well as how their thought-provoking focus on language offers incisive understanding of the world as this poet experiences it. The poems feel very immediate and resonant, so for that I do recommend this book to readers of modern poetry.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free ebook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Lila Danisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I humbly confess that I don't understand almost all of the poems in this book. At first I thought I would understand if I reread from the beginning to the end. However, by the 5th time of my rereading, I gave up and acknowledged my not so good interpretation of the poems written in this book. I could count in one hand how many poems I barely understand, the rest were just jumbled of words to me. So, the 3 stars rating is not because the poems are bad, but purely because of me not understanding 90% of the book.

But, I have many favorites lines. Those lines were just somehow resonate with me. Some of them were also ironically funny. One of them being, "After all, consumption was a way of measuring". Or "People this obsessed with comparison rarely arrive at preference. They grow attached to the translatability of choice". Another one being, "Admittedly, I had not slept well and felt passive like a doorframe of my self ".

As I write this review, I consider to reread this poetry book as many as I need to finally understand at least 50% of the book. Sound ambitious eh.

Thank you to Xuela Zhang, NYU Press, Fonograf Editions, and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Joe Cairns · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Compare by Xuela Zhang is a delightful collection of poems. While a brief set of works (manageable in a single sitting), each poem deserves some lingering contemplation. Zhang has great control of her craft, bringing such clarity to the images she elicits. Her focus on the social interactionism of meaning when defining a sense of belonging and identity is woven throughout the collection, in a form that remains concise and flowing. A nice amount of attention is paid to the borders of translatability and the limits of what language has to offer in the experiences of a modern political landscape.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC - I cannot wait to explore more of what Xuela Zhang offers in the future!

[olivia in the pages. · Rating 4 out of 5]

{ARC} I really enjoyed this. I read poetry collections often, so I was intrigued by this one as it seemed to centre around the less popular (and quite frankly, overdone) topics of love, heartbreak, etc. I felt like I was stepping inside of a mind I would have never otherwise known. Beautifully written. Here’s an excerpt that stuck with me:
“You still believe in free speech, though you watched language attack its own body without end, like the immune system of a real body, infected by the real virus.”

[Kuu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Poetry on language and translation? Sign me up!

this was both stylistically well done and appealed to me specifically content-wise, as I love ponderings on language, translatability, and everything related, which featured heavily in several of the poems here. It was a quick but pleasant read, and definitely a poetry collection I'd recommend.

[Ambi · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are beautiful, lush, and thought-provoking. With lyrical prose, Xuela Zhang’s debut collection, To Compare, reflects on transnationalism and the often jarring experience of living in translation. Some of my favorite poems from this collection were:

Quarantine (1)
To Compare (2)
To Compare (3)
Prelude to Translators Note
Interview: Pig
Translators Note (3)
Translators Note (5)

—Many thanks to NetGalley and NYU Press for the ARC! I can’t wait to see what Zhang writes next.

[Alec! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho este poemario. Se habla del hecho de ser inmigrante en un nuevo país, tener que partir tu lengua en dos para no renegar de la cultura en la que se han criado tus antepasados pero adaptarte a su vez a la del nuevo país que habitas. En resumen, el tema central es la traducción, no solo en el sentido de las palabras.

Los versos se sienten muy cálidos, directos y cercanos. Lo recomiendo, dadle una oportunidad. <3

[Horace Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly short poetry collection that talks about language and translation. The ideas were conveyed quite well and gave me quite a bit to chew on. The style of the poetry was also quite well done.

[H.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lover of poetry, and as an amateur poet I really liked this precious collection. This work intrigued me a lot, and I also love reading contemporary poems by new own voices! And this one made me step inside of the poet’s inner world and thoughts. An excellent work!

[Soledad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unique, a solid read of poetry and verse. I reread this after I finished as at first I felt some of the poems didn't resonate with me. I'm curious to see more from this author! Thank you to NYU press and Netgalley for the eARC.