Shadow Mountain

by Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan

Shadow Mountain is the winner of the Four Way Books Intro Series in Poetry, selected by acclaimed poet Kimiko Hahn. The first years of the 21st century have been marked by a global uneasiness over untold forgotten prisoners, unjustified wars, secret decisions. In Shadow Mountain Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan gives voice to older, too-easily forgotten tragedies, urging us to learn a present lesson. She draws on the stories of Japanese-Americans interned at Manzanar Relocation Center, California, and on her own childhood and memories of her grandparents, examining the fault-line between family life and communal experience. Shadow Mountain is captivating in its imagery, enchanting in its sounds, and a must read for anyone interested in the history of Japanese-American citizens and their children. Ranging in her forms from sonnet to terzanelle to fragmented, obstructed free verse, Kageyama-Ramakrishnan is a heartfelt interlocutor. “A socially-conscious writer whose issues of war and passion bring us back, then forward again… Shadow Mountain, a plaintive first book, will be read by those who love poetry—and by those who will begin that love, here.” —Kimiko Hahn

Genres: Poetry, Asian American

86 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2008

Reviews

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can understand how the book is trying to deal with the fact of belonging, but it is not enough for me that there is allusion to detention camps and discrimination (and when I say allusion I mean a catalogue of objects that are meant to evoke the scene). I guess what I'm trying to say is that I respect the subject this book is addressing, but I don't feel that it is as concerned with drawing the reader in to that subject.

[Mary Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire worked so hard on this book, so happy she won. Beautiful book of poems.

[Paul]

Review at asianamlitfans.