One Way to Listen

by Asa Drake

"Asa Drake's incisive debut chapbook, ONE WAY TO LISTEN, carves through simplistic narratives, filling in the new space with 'nests of small animals,' surreal details that promote curiosity and 'room for uncertainty.' Operating with furious imagination, these poems return to interlocking of family, place, and self--love especially in resistance to rising violence that this speaker, a Filipina American woman, is positioned to live in acute awareness of. Through such tenderness, Drake opens vital questions about relation and grief. In response to the 2021 Atlanta spa shooting, Drake's speaker asks what outfit is appropriate to wear after a loss 'no one will recognize.' These poems demand recognition. They process aggressions through layered metaphor. As she lays clothed in snakes who shut their mouths to keep warm, the speaker identifies the risks, always, of being a speaker. Of letting in the cold. A brilliant emerging writer, Asa Drake's debut collection is urgent and unforgettable."--Taneum Bambrick, author of Intimacies, Received Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Women's Studies.

46 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Asa Drake is a Filipina/white poet in Central Florida. She is the author of "Maybe the Body" (Tin House, 2026) and "Beauty Talk" (Noemi Press, 2026), winner of the 2024 Noemi Press Book Award. A National Poetry Series finalist, she is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, Kenyon Review Residential Writers Workshop, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Storyknife, Sundress Publications, Tin House and Idyllwild Arts. Her poems can be found on The Slowdown Podcast, The American Poetry Review, and Poetry Daily. A former librarian, she currently works as a teaching artist.

Reviews

[Ellie Botoman · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5