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First Contact
A formally experimental and absurdist mock-epic poem that melds speculative fiction and travel writing
Something on the horizon inches toward the drunken villagers of Zonal Beach, but what―or who―could it be? In First Contact, Warren Liu presents a hilarious, polyphonic poem that narrates the agonizingly slow-motion progress of a first contact encounter between coastal natives and shipwrecked would-be colonizers. Liu's wry, humorous poetry uses three distinct voices to highlight the inherent farce of coming up against a world entirely different from one's own. Slipping between tropes of colonial myth-making and alien encounters, Liu animates the strange, slanted rhymes of history with a voracious wit and deft ear. Whether narrating the choral chatter of the bewildered villagers or a mystic's pop-culture-informed oracular visions or the epistolary reminiscences of a lost exile, Liu demonstrates again and again how colliding with a new culture always happens first as farce, then as farce once more.
Warren Liu is a professor of English at Scripps College in Claremont, California.
Something on the horizon inches toward the drunken villagers of Zonal Beach, but what―or who―could it be? In First Contact, Warren Liu presents a hilarious, polyphonic poem that narrates the agonizingly slow-motion progress of a first contact encounter between coastal natives and shipwrecked would-be colonizers. Liu's wry, humorous poetry uses three distinct voices to highlight the inherent farce of coming up against a world entirely different from one's own. Slipping between tropes of colonial myth-making and alien encounters, Liu animates the strange, slanted rhymes of history with a voracious wit and deft ear. Whether narrating the choral chatter of the bewildered villagers or a mystic's pop-culture-informed oracular visions or the epistolary reminiscences of a lost exile, Liu demonstrates again and again how colliding with a new culture always happens first as farce, then as farce once more.
Warren Liu is a professor of English at Scripps College in Claremont, California.
112 pages, Paperback
Published May 26, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 15, 2026
a lot that i found awesome!! some lovely turns of phrase mixed in with a generally humorous tone that works quite well & an interesting format with multiple poetic voices. the idea of someone who has pop culture references from centuries into the future unwillingly beamed into her head - becoming a reluctant and nonsensical prophet to a society about to suffer colonization - is really cool.
and i ultimately wish there had been.. more? i felt like i wanted more of odd-chang’s account and of miko’s sermons etc etc. some of the ideas felt underdeveloped, or at least i wanted to spend more time with them. but i guess the point was more — to pinpoint and do over the telling of this one precise moment of, as the title suggests, “first contact.” so overall quite intriguing and fun!!
and i ultimately wish there had been.. more? i felt like i wanted more of odd-chang’s account and of miko’s sermons etc etc. some of the ideas felt underdeveloped, or at least i wanted to spend more time with them. but i guess the point was more — to pinpoint and do over the telling of this one precise moment of, as the title suggests, “first contact.” so overall quite intriguing and fun!!
Review of advance copy
Had no idea this wasn't published yet. I bought it from a bookstore. Fair and square!
An incredible work of poetry at every point. The drunken swirl of talk, description, and drinking made for a great opening. The Miko's Sermon to the Crabs sections were killer, especially the more trekky one. Lists are fun to read, especially a list of non-surface level Star Trek references.
An incredible work of poetry at every point. The drunken swirl of talk, description, and drinking made for a great opening. The Miko's Sermon to the Crabs sections were killer, especially the more trekky one. Lists are fun to read, especially a list of non-surface level Star Trek references.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews