Beast at Every Threshold

by Natalie Wee

An unflinching shapeshifter, Beast at Every Threshold dances between familial hauntings and cultural histories, intimate hungers and broader griefs. Memories become malleable, pop culture provides a backdrop to glittery queer love, and folklore speaks back as a radical tool of survival. With unapologetic precision, Natalie Wee unravels constructs of “otherness” and names language our most familiar weapon, illuminating the intersections of queerness, diaspora, and loss with obsessive, inexhaustible ferocity—and in resurrecting the self rendered a site of violence, makes visible the “Beast at Every Threshold.”

Beguiling and deeply imagined, Wee’s poems explore thresholds of marginality, queerness, immigration, nationhood, and reinvention of the self through myth.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, Contemporary, Canada, Queer Lit

102 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2022

About the author

Natalie Wee is a queer creator. She wrote two poetry collections, Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (San Press, 2021) and Beast At Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022).

Her work explores themes of race, gender, queerness, and nationhood, and is deeply informed by grassroots communities. Born in Singapore to Malaysian parents, she is currently a settler in Tkaronto.

Reviews

[Jack Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars rounded up -- so many gorgeous, tender poems (my personal highlight was In My Next Life as a Fruit Tree) but I'm not sure all the experimentation worked 100% of the time. Overall, though, I enjoyed this poetic exploration of "otherness".

[Liz • りず · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Choose a hell
of your own making over the hell that unmakes you. Flower
a garden of rage & eat & eat & eat. "
🏵️🪴🦊
With evocative, sensuous, and visceral poise, Natalie Wee explores passion, sorrow, and heritage in her beguiling collection of experimental poetry.

Beast at Every Threshold chronicles a burning desire for love through language, memories, and experience. Each poem shines brilliantly on its own while connecting with and expanding on the previous ones in subtle, yet complex fashions. The multitude of allusions to music, memes, other writers, and queer pop culture serve as a pleasant surprise, and like an intricate mosaic, the more you gaze at it, the more you discover.

Wee also muses on immigrant culture and the experience of living apart from, yet connected to one's motherland and native tongue. With the trauma of racism, xenophobia, and otherness blooms a deeper understanding of self. Poetry is the vessel in which Wee connects with other women, both family and strangers, to learn to bear the burden of generational trauma and suffering without it becoming overwhelming. By seeking out hope in despair, beauty in the unconventional, we trudge towards a more promising future.

Wee's poems are captivating and vividly conceived, exploring the borders of marginalization, queerness, immigration, nationality, and self-reinvention through mythology and storytelling. Overall, Wee's labyrinthine collection is a dazzling glimpse into the various aspects of her life, where they intersect, clash, and how she threads them together. It is a brilliant juxtaposition of optimism and grief, love and hate, yearning and manifestation, past and future.

[Seigfreid Uy · Rating 5 out of 5]

beast at every threshold was SUCH a joy to read. when @arsenalpulp reached out to send me an ARC all the way from canada — i was cautious, ocean vuong is my absolute favorite writer of all time and has allowed me to learn and appreciate poetry. but how well can i process a whole other collection from a poet i didn’t yet have the pleasure to know?

spoiler: i fell in love with this collection, and i do not mean that lightly.

let me count the ways — it is a poetry collection that explores themes of queerness and identity from a southeast asian perspective with chinese heritage. it looks at the feeling of otherness and connection from this point of view.

let me continue — it utilizes pop culture references that i hold near and dear to me, namely: ocean vuong, the avatar franchise, phoebe bridgers, mo dao zu shi (okay, more the untamed), and studio ghibli.

and to close — natalie brought elements of her background and heritage and a beautifully intimate way, integrating chinese characters and malay words (that are similar to filipino) that made the reading experience more intimate since i had the pleasure of having my own background to source from

but beyond all of this — natalie wee brilliantly mixes inspiration and originality. from the pop culture references that she injected a unique point of view on (she cites the different works that have inspired some of her works at the acknowledgments part), to the wonderfully original stylistic choices and word choices she makes — you have poems done in cross-words, read three-ways, creative breaks, etc. that make an already engaging poetry collection, so much more.

i have far more thoughts on this and i’m excited to do a multiple-part review/annotation dump on the many times this collection made me feel.

it is beautiful and worth all of your time.

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly incredible collection of poetry. Themes include queer love and desire; pop culture; immigration; racism and being othered; pets and plants; diaspora; myth and folklore; parenthood and childbirth.

Intertextual in nature, the poems often explicitly reference other poet's work, from Sappho to Ocean Vuong, as well as musicians including Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers.

They are delightfully and fiercely innovative in their form, style, and word play. One poem is written as a crossword with clues. More than one is written in multiple columns/stanzas justified left and right so it's open to being read straight across both columns or one column at a time -- or both, of course. 

Wee has a talent for clever line breaks that appear to end on one word only to supply the second part of the word on the next line, changing the meaning as you first read it. For example: "I understand how one mistakes the kind / -ling of lovers for a fuse."

Her word choice is often delightfully uncanny, making mundane words strange and wonderful in their unexpected use. I'm not surprised to see the collection has a blurb from Billy-Ray Belcourt, who has a similar ease and play with language that makes the old and familiar look new and curious. 

I loved this and highly recommend it!

[naviya · Rating 4 out of 5]

- what a lovely collection!! i love so many poems
- this collection has some shape(?) poems and read-three-ways poems which i enjoyed alot
- alot of sensory images, a lot of violence, a lot of detail : excellent
- my fave poems: in defence of my roommate's dog, bordersong, in my next life as a fruit tree, 10 years after diagnosis, the korrasami poems and the one with the phoebe bridgers title

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arsenal Pulp has become one of my favorite publishers, and when I was looking at their spring releases, I knew I needed to pre-order this one. The cover already had me set up for an easy sell, but then the blurb had phrases like "familial hauntings and cultural histories," "glittery queer love," "folklore speaks back as a radical tool of survival," and "inexhaustible ferocity."

This book absolutely did not disappoint.

I was already five-starring this in my brain with a long list of favorite poems noted that I wanted to return to, when halfway through the collection I arrived at "Wei Ying Tells Me About Resurrection" and !!! Wei Ying brainspace already has my heart half-flayed open AND THEN IT CUTS FURTHER. "Choose a hell of your own making over the hell that unmakes you." Insert keysmash of overwhelming emotion here.

AND THEN THAT ISN'T EVEN MY FAVORITE POEM IN THE COLLECTION. That place being currently held by "Listen I Love You Joy is Coming." "How much of the world must we pass through to arrive at ourselves?" with its nods to the new ways we found to show care for each other in the pandemic.

I always say I will reread collections but rarely do, but this one I WILL.

[Sinyee · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down
This was too tumblr for my Basic Ass

Little snippets like
“isn’t my mother’s tongue the only thing they can’t make me surrender at the border?” and
“She tells me because she cannot forget
& because she forgets she tells me again.”

makes me glad I at least gave it a chance, but not enough to be pleased at the whole experience.

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredibly imaginative collection of poems that takes the reader on a journey into queer longing and loneliness, familial histories, mythologies and a glittering assemblage of pop culture references ( we get Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers and Wong Kar-Wai and so much more). could also file this book under convinced Felix has a sixth sense when it comes to gifting books, he didn't even know it had a crossword puzzle poem !!!

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's perfect! It's beautiful! It looks like Linda Evangelista!

[sol encuerpado · Rating 2 out of 5]

está bien, dejaré de ser terca y oficialmente me retiro de leer poesía

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually read a lot of poetry books. I've always enjoyed poetry but sort of closed myself off to it, and I'm pretty picky. Classic poetry can be lovely, but gets tiresome if you have a whole book of it. Modern poetry can be too pat and obvious.

I found Beast at Every Threshold at a bookstore. I loved the cover, read one poem, and then the author's blurb, and went for it.

This is a beautiful collection. It has a bit of everything--philosophy, connection, nature, bodies, queerness, immigration, power, emotion. There were lots of bits I read over and over to savor them, and I sent snippets to friends. I think that's proof of a good poetry book; that immediate desire to share the feeling it evoked.

Really look forward to more from Natalie Wee, and honestly, more poetry in general, now.

[Stephanie Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

“we arrive at a kinder fiction by surrendering the self / to a new era. what must survive. what must survive us. an hour, a pendulum admits, / can last lifetimes, really, depending on how many you’ve lived. so perhaps alive at all / is alive enough.” (from EN ROUTE TO THE SIXTH STATION, CHIHIRO COUNTS THE CLOUDS.)

so tender, so honest, so sharp, so lovely. Natalie Wee is a bright & brilliant force of nature.

[Viv (read.withviv)]

no rating because I’m not a huge poetry reader and don’t think I was able to grasp majority of the poems. The ones I did understand, I did enjoy though!
This collection of poems makes me want to read more poetry 🫶🏻

Poems I enjoyed:
“Can You Speak English?”
Self-Portrait as Monster Dating Sim
In My Next Life as a Fruit Tree
When My Grandmother Begins to Forget

[kait · Rating 2 out of 5]

the formatting is... something! i had a hard time reading it, and even after re-reading poems had honestly no clue what they were trying to say. most of the poems seem to be about the same things. the funny titles didn't match how avant garde the poems were. i'm sorry natalie i loved your other poetry collection but this one didn't hit for me

[laura]

Will I ever understand or enjoy poetry? Who even knows but I keep trying 🫠

[May · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the greatest measure of devotion is to hunger
without bite, let looking be a placeholder for a kinder want

"fucking shit" – an actual I thing I exclaimed while reading this collection, in the sense that my brain is broken at how malleable words are beneath Natalie Wee's pen.

So forget theories of sorrow
& hellfire & brimstone at the final circle of the earth:
if I must believe in anything, I choose this: my lover
whispering, in my next life, I want to be
the bird that rests on your branches –
knowing the whole while
in my next life, i want to be
is already a complete sentence

All at once tender, ravenous, reckless and considered, this collection disarmed me in the way Barbie Chang and Content Warning: Everything did and it was so, so glorious. As a sum, this collection balloons into a beautiful ode to the other. I particularly loved Natalie Wee's aubade to "diasporic darlings" and the poems scribed against the backdrop of pop culture references like Spirited Away and The Legend of Korra.

we wake daily to arrive at a kinder fiction by surrendering the self
to a new era. what must arrive. what must survive us. an hour, a pendulum admits,
can last lifetimes, really, depending on how many you've lived. so perhaps alive at all
is alive enough.

[Delaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite poems: Sayang, Future-Proof

[#1 wei wuxian respecter · Rating 3 out of 5]

actual rating: 3.5 🌟

it was nice, i highlighted some quotes, but in the end i don't think i really connected with the poems (half a star added for one of them mentioning wei wuxian in its title)

[emery · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

esta foi a escolha de abril-maio da @perpetuando.palavras para o #perpetuandoaasia e confesso que fui 100% às escuras mas, tendo um compromisso comigo própria de participar em todas as leituras decidi experimentar esta um pouco mais alternativa(?).

fiquei dividida entre “não é o meu tipo de poesia” com “isto até é divertido de ler” e “voltei aos tempos do tumblr”. no final de contas, todos eles são verdade mas esta tende a ser uma daquelas leituras esquecíveis para mim. nenhum destes poemas me marcou de alguma forma especial.

o que mais gostei foi a escolha dos títulos criativos de cada poema, que de alguma forma conseguiam explicar o conteúdo de cada um. em relação aos poemas em si, foram dos mais complexos que já li. para além de ser em inglês, que complica sempre o meu envolvimento e sensibilidade para com a poesia, ainda tinha muitas palavras “difíceis”, pelo que o dicionário foi o meu melhor amigo, mas fez perder um bocadinho da magia. neste caso culpo-me a mim e não ao livro.

também gostei muito dos temas abordados, e só gostava de ter compreendido tudo melhor, como se fosse na minha língua nativa. a autora explora temas como raça, género ou ‘queerness’, e adorei a forma criativa como o escolheu fazer.

quanto à forma, imaginem uma espécie de rupi kaur mas com um nível de complexidade mil vezes maior e muito menos cliché. foi assim que senti esta coletânea.

não conhecia a autora, uma criadora queer, mas fiquei fã dela enquanto pessoa, e já percebi que tem outro livro um pouco mais conhecido - Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines.

apesar de não ter sido realmente marcante para mim, não posso deixar de recomendar, principalmente se gostarem de descobrir coisas novas, se gostarem de poesia contemporânea ou se quiserem acrescentar mais um livro à vossa biblioteca queer. da minha parte, acho que um dia ainda vou querer conhecer mais obras publicadas pela autora.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful and haunting collection of poetry and prose. Natalie touches on her own diaspora, queerness, love of different forms, anti-Asian hate, rage, familial struggle and teachings, grief and other intersectional radical thoughts. Her talent to be able to translate all of these themes in a digestible and comforting way is outstanding. I really appreciate and love this book. I’ll always think about it and will definitely read it again.

[Makena Horn · Rating 1 out of 5]

1/5

This is tumblr poetry published.

My poem about Taika Waititi is more enjoyable than majority of poems in this book.

Taylor Swift doesn’t deserve to be compared to the writing in this book.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry written so hauntingly and uniquely and yet also completely familiar to who I am and am not.

[Lulu · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an ambitious and stunning collection of poetry, maybe my favourite that I've ever read? There was so much goodness in these pages, that I want to write an essay for every single one, on the virtues of Wee's words and craft on a whole. This weaves a tapestry of something beautiful, something queer and diasporic and precise and yet not afraid to be strange or unknowable. I liked the more experimental forms too, the poems that could be read three ways, or made up a crossword, or others like them. It was such a treat to be able to sample so many forms in one little book.

I have a lot of feelings. The only downsides to this collection were that, for two reasons, I ended up having to stop and start my reading a lot. The first was because I was writing down snippets to remember and store, so I could return to them at a later date, so much did they touch me. The second was that, a few times, I would find myself inspired to my own poetry, something I haven't written in a long, long time.

I'm really glad I found this poet. She is jaw-droppingly talented. Now I just have to keep hope alive that I can track down her out-of-print debut collection, because I need more of this in my life.

[Michi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Natalie deserves better recognition for this chapbook!

There are so many beautiful poems here, not just with their content but also structure. The opening poem was really strong. The rest of the chapbook was tightly structured with each poem weaving a specific image to the next one (mostly), enhancing the overarching themes.

Love the concept of the subject being the “beast” and how it reacts and interacts at “every threshold;” the subject here could be the narrator, a loved one, an enemy, or a fictional character, who is always present and experiences what is happening in the poem. More than this, I love her way of experiencing life: to be is to exist, live, and persist.

Natalie’s exceptional use of language and poetic structure is extremely compelling to me. Imagery and ideology are brought to life effortlessly in the pages. I wish there was a deeper impact as it wraps up in the end, but still, I was utterly inspired.

4.5 rounded up

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introspective and contemporary, with many modern pop culture references. There was a compelling quality to the poems Wee crafted. The poems explored a range of topics; immigration, queerness, selfhood, diaspora and mythology. Wee wields language like a shard of glass; sharp and reflective with a delicacy that doubles as strength.

[Ellie Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this poetry collection. I took longer than usual to read it, as I wanted to savour every poem. There were some beautiful poems contained within it, but it didn't make it to 5 stars for me because some of the poems were not memorable for me. I can see how many of the poems would touch the hearts of many, and some of them certainly did for me.

[g · Rating 4 out of 5]

you know what? yeah. love seeing monsters and beasts within the deconstructed self image. but this was also very based in motherhood and generational trauma so if you cant connect or empathize with those—this collection wont hit for you

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

an utterly stunning collection. i want to take every poem and put it up on my wall to read over and over again. i'm in awe. The images are striking; Wee doesn't just passively observe nature, her words embody it. The work is visceral, connected to family, childhood, trauma, othering, blood, bone, popular culture. it's a gorgeous and brilliant work.
[...] I ask the silver beneath passages//to reveal someplace I can mistake for light.//I ask new anthems to greet me with a jaw // soft enough to hold my name." Frequent Flyer Program

[Dessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

full review forthcoming in the next issue of Arc Magazine 💅