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Peach State
Finalist, 2022 Patterson Poetry Prize
Peach State has its origins in Atlanta, Georgia, the author’s hometown and an emblematic city of the New South, a name that reflects the American region’s invigoration in recent decades by immigration and a spirit of reinvention. Focused mainly on food and cooking, these poems explore the city’s transformation from the mid-twentieth century to today, as seen and shaped by Chinese Americans. The poems are set in restaurants, home kitchens, grocery stores, and the houses of friends and neighbors. Often employing forms—sonnet, villanelle, sestina, palindrome, ghazal, rhymed stanzas—they also mirror the constant negotiation with tradition that marks both immigrant and Southern experience.
Peach State has its origins in Atlanta, Georgia, the author’s hometown and an emblematic city of the New South, a name that reflects the American region’s invigoration in recent decades by immigration and a spirit of reinvention. Focused mainly on food and cooking, these poems explore the city’s transformation from the mid-twentieth century to today, as seen and shaped by Chinese Americans. The poems are set in restaurants, home kitchens, grocery stores, and the houses of friends and neighbors. Often employing forms—sonnet, villanelle, sestina, palindrome, ghazal, rhymed stanzas—they also mirror the constant negotiation with tradition that marks both immigrant and Southern experience.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Paperback
First published March 23, 2021
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141 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 19, 2022
There are a couple of poems in this collection that I teach regularly. It’s a great collection—so much food! And so much reflection on growing up in the Sunbelt South with intersecting—and sometimes contradictory—identities.
November 28, 2021
Thank you for sharing this.
October 22, 2025
Poems written in a nostalgic, rosy tone describing the foods the author has grown up with and the cultures that have shaped her.
October 29, 2025
Love the focus on food and culture, but don't love the style.
March 22, 2025
Lazy Susan, home economics, oolong, Chinese restaurant syndrome. Beautiful beautiful forceful poignant reflections of nostalgia and heritage and the longing that exists for/from either
May 11, 2022
Reminded me to read more poetry and also write from the heart. Loved this book for the reminders.
March 14, 2022
A unique voice and perspective on North Atlanta! This collection of poems featuring a nostalgic reflection on changes, both familial and geographic, echoing Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again, the Buford Highway edition.
January 10, 2023
i was like “this is fine” and then food memory hit me like a ton of bricks
February 17, 2023
Like a good dining experience, I came for the food and stayed for the conversation.
Su’s ability to display multiple cultures' ideologies at once without forcing the reader to label one as better or more ethical helps the reader understand that Su writes from a place of love that extends to food and all people. Her poems meditate on complex dilemmas such as being caught between the bittersweetness of childhood ignorance and respecting the ideologies associated with “grass fed” beef or veganism. The poem “The End of Meat” displays how two different cultures refer to the “end of meat” and how the speaker understands and values both, although they appear to be opposing.
The speaker in Peach State is torn between a love of different places, different food cultures, different generational and ethical food ideologies, exhibited in the book's final line, “the only home you know.” Su's "home" is not a singular home but is built from a variety of cultural experiences. This final statement makes the reader question whether we can enjoy being a part of multiple types of “homes” even if we can’t dwell there all the time. Su presents us with internal conflicts that different traditions bring to those who enjoy all, who have experienced much and feel no need to pick a favorite. A similar concept is found in the poem “Xiaolongbao” as the speaker would like to “name it all,” “all” referring to new food, family, and tradition as well as the traditions that have been lost and therefore “unnamed” because of distance and time. Odes are often exclusionary, but Su writes odes that also function as laments: Because being a lover of so many types of food, they can't all be eaten at once.
Su celebrates family and tradition itself. The reader discovers that family tradition around any food is the point, not the food itself. The poem “Doughnuts” (97) depicts the mixing and changing of family traditions as “tofu” is replaced by Krispy Kreme across three generations. The loss of certain traditional foods, like in her poem “Red Bean Soup,” are not just about a loss of a food, but about the loss of the connection that the food could have brought. The kitchen as a means of community connection is also highlighted in the poem “The Lazy Suzan.” Su connects the kitchen table to a “fire,” a place that warms food, people, conversation, and builds relationships.
Throughout Peach State, Su uses humor to deconstruct stereotypes that are meant to hurt. Poems like “Name that Restaurant” and “I Didn’t Know Aiiieeeee, But It Knew Me” remind me of her “Asian Driver” poems in Sanctuary (2006). Readers can’t help but laugh, then are forced to contemplate what is funny. Su succeeds with these poems because they don’t leave the audience feeling racist for laughing. Instead, she uses these poems to clearly display how illogical racism is.
Some of the strongest poems in the collection rely on long epigraphs, which provide cultural background knowledge for the reader. “Across-the-Bridge Noodles” connects the legend of the Yunnanese dish to the contemporary American household, showing that love for spouse and food transcends ideas about ancient or contemporary gender roles. This poem is a good example of how although Su sometimes uses academic diction, like “unfeminist” or “scholarly,” her allegiance lies with how food can bring people together.
By showing her love of all types of food, Su avoids didactic history lessons or preachy food ethics. Poems like “Tea Eggs” (34) show how difficult it is to introduce others to new ideas they have never “tasted” before. The poem also highlights the heartache and irony of when this thoughtless rejection happens in the classroom, a place that should represent curiosity and discovery.
Su provides readers new ways to view the severity of history that is often hard to face by using food as a recurring metaphor to criticize the historical inhumane treatment of immigrants . In “Kiwifruit” (13) readers learn that over the past century “immigrant” food has been more quickly accepted into American culture than immigrant people.
Su uses poetic form as a tool to deal with tough historical subject matter. In “Ginger” she rhymes the reader into horror. The poem begin playfully but ends with a criticism of “barbaric… persecution.” Peach State displays how Su masterfully controls the tone of each poem, as well as the tone of the book as a whole. Through tonal variety, Su is able to avoid food cliches and also avoid the pitfalls that often ensnare authors who write about the suffering of minority populations.
I expected protest poems from Peach State and was pleased to find them, but what I remember most are the poems like “Lychee Express” in which Su shows what different food has meant to different classes of people throughout history. Readers learn how local food, once “peasant” food, is now expensive, whereas food hauled from far off that used to be exotic is now cheap and abundant in grocery stores. The poem introduces the idea that how we think about food depends on our time in history.
Su’s ability to display multiple cultures' ideologies at once without forcing the reader to label one as better or more ethical helps the reader understand that Su writes from a place of love that extends to food and all people. Her poems meditate on complex dilemmas such as being caught between the bittersweetness of childhood ignorance and respecting the ideologies associated with “grass fed” beef or veganism. The poem “The End of Meat” displays how two different cultures refer to the “end of meat” and how the speaker understands and values both, although they appear to be opposing.
The speaker in Peach State is torn between a love of different places, different food cultures, different generational and ethical food ideologies, exhibited in the book's final line, “the only home you know.” Su's "home" is not a singular home but is built from a variety of cultural experiences. This final statement makes the reader question whether we can enjoy being a part of multiple types of “homes” even if we can’t dwell there all the time. Su presents us with internal conflicts that different traditions bring to those who enjoy all, who have experienced much and feel no need to pick a favorite. A similar concept is found in the poem “Xiaolongbao” as the speaker would like to “name it all,” “all” referring to new food, family, and tradition as well as the traditions that have been lost and therefore “unnamed” because of distance and time. Odes are often exclusionary, but Su writes odes that also function as laments: Because being a lover of so many types of food, they can't all be eaten at once.
Su celebrates family and tradition itself. The reader discovers that family tradition around any food is the point, not the food itself. The poem “Doughnuts” (97) depicts the mixing and changing of family traditions as “tofu” is replaced by Krispy Kreme across three generations. The loss of certain traditional foods, like in her poem “Red Bean Soup,” are not just about a loss of a food, but about the loss of the connection that the food could have brought. The kitchen as a means of community connection is also highlighted in the poem “The Lazy Suzan.” Su connects the kitchen table to a “fire,” a place that warms food, people, conversation, and builds relationships.
Throughout Peach State, Su uses humor to deconstruct stereotypes that are meant to hurt. Poems like “Name that Restaurant” and “I Didn’t Know Aiiieeeee, But It Knew Me” remind me of her “Asian Driver” poems in Sanctuary (2006). Readers can’t help but laugh, then are forced to contemplate what is funny. Su succeeds with these poems because they don’t leave the audience feeling racist for laughing. Instead, she uses these poems to clearly display how illogical racism is.
Some of the strongest poems in the collection rely on long epigraphs, which provide cultural background knowledge for the reader. “Across-the-Bridge Noodles” connects the legend of the Yunnanese dish to the contemporary American household, showing that love for spouse and food transcends ideas about ancient or contemporary gender roles. This poem is a good example of how although Su sometimes uses academic diction, like “unfeminist” or “scholarly,” her allegiance lies with how food can bring people together.
By showing her love of all types of food, Su avoids didactic history lessons or preachy food ethics. Poems like “Tea Eggs” (34) show how difficult it is to introduce others to new ideas they have never “tasted” before. The poem also highlights the heartache and irony of when this thoughtless rejection happens in the classroom, a place that should represent curiosity and discovery.
Su provides readers new ways to view the severity of history that is often hard to face by using food as a recurring metaphor to criticize the historical inhumane treatment of immigrants . In “Kiwifruit” (13) readers learn that over the past century “immigrant” food has been more quickly accepted into American culture than immigrant people.
Su uses poetic form as a tool to deal with tough historical subject matter. In “Ginger” she rhymes the reader into horror. The poem begin playfully but ends with a criticism of “barbaric… persecution.” Peach State displays how Su masterfully controls the tone of each poem, as well as the tone of the book as a whole. Through tonal variety, Su is able to avoid food cliches and also avoid the pitfalls that often ensnare authors who write about the suffering of minority populations.
I expected protest poems from Peach State and was pleased to find them, but what I remember most are the poems like “Lychee Express” in which Su shows what different food has meant to different classes of people throughout history. Readers learn how local food, once “peasant” food, is now expensive, whereas food hauled from far off that used to be exotic is now cheap and abundant in grocery stores. The poem introduces the idea that how we think about food depends on our time in history.
December 18, 2021
This collection is absolutely incredible. The best poetry book about food I've ever read. Interrogates identity, culture, history, belonging, appetite, family, language, and other meaningful topics. Go read it.
July 7, 2025
Best poems
———
The Lazy Susan - Lines from 1st half are used in reverse order to be second half (eg ABCD DCBA)
———
When I Said I Grew Up Speaking No Chinese, I Was Forgetting These Words - Chinese food names and descriptions
———
Maple Syrup
———
The Lazy Susan - Lines from 1st half are used in reverse order to be second half (eg ABCD DCBA)
———
When I Said I Grew Up Speaking No Chinese, I Was Forgetting These Words - Chinese food names and descriptions
———
Maple Syrup
Read
June 27, 2021A delight
December 31, 2022
So beautiful. Made me nostalgic for Atlanta. Also made me hungry lol.
May 22, 2023
It's been a long time since I've read a book of poetry. I enjoyed the combination and juxtaposition of the author's Chinese heritage with her life in the south, Atlanta specifically.
February 3, 2024
I have a soft spot for poetry that centers around a particular place, so this was right up my alley. I especially loved all the food imagery and the personal stories that follow.
May 17, 2024
Awkward meter, but great descriptions of food
August 5, 2024
some of the poems at the beginning were difficult to get into, but there were some exceptional ones towards the end. as an atlanta native it was nice to be able to know exactly what/where she was talking about
May 28, 2025
comforting like a home cooked meal
December 27, 2025
Just unbelievable. Such a variety of styles and forms yet with a consistent theme which ties it all together so stunningly.
March 11, 2023
With clarity and subtle wit, Su evokes food, culture, and the contours of a life. As I take the time to savor the subtleties, the appeal grows. Thoughtful and tasty….
January 16, 2026
Good book. Love the food references (very very smart and yum ofc). Not blaming the author and more of our lit curriculum but the message….it gets repetitive cuz it all feels the same.
✨BONUS✨
“Not Your Grandmother’s Sunday Dinner
My grandmother’s
Sunday dinner. “
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA—I’m sorry what?! When I opened to that page my first reaction was “is this a misprint?”
Ik there’s some analysis to it but idt it’s that deep (believe me I suffered through 25 min of AP lit analysis where everyone kept getting called on to bs the meaning of this two-liner plus title). Sorry author but it’s not rly hitting like how u thought it would.
✨BONUS✨
“Not Your Grandmother’s Sunday Dinner
My grandmother’s
Sunday dinner. “
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA—I’m sorry what?! When I opened to that page my first reaction was “is this a misprint?”
Ik there’s some analysis to it but idt it’s that deep (believe me I suffered through 25 min of AP lit analysis where everyone kept getting called on to bs the meaning of this two-liner plus title). Sorry author but it’s not rly hitting like how u thought it would.
July 31, 2025
There are multiple different ways poetry can be enjoyed, and this collection felt like a series of photographs. I picked it up from the library after feeling nostalgic for home and I really liked this- a great homage to the Atlanta I know.
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December 12, 20222.5-3 stars... i felt so bad for not liking it :(( i just dont think food poetry carries over very well in this form. like boba diaspora but from an older generation, so i guess it's better intentioned, but the resulting emotions it elicits in me are the same.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews