-
Motherlands: Poems
- Max Ritvo Poetry Prize
- Narrated by: Weijia Pan
- Length: 43 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
![Prime logo](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/Homestead/Prime_Logo_RGB.png)
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pre-order for $10.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
- Book was selected by Louise Glück as winner of the 2023 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, joining a growing list of successful poetry debuts, including Michael Kleber-Digg’s collection Worldly Things, which has sold more than 4,000 copies
- Author is a poet and translator from Shanghai, China; his poems have appeared in AGNI, Boulevard, Copper Nickel, Georgia Review, New Ohio Review, Ninth Letter, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere.
- Book’s engagement with history and identity, transnationalism (China and the U.S.), the Covid-19 pandemic, and Maosit/Post-Maoist China will appeal to a wide audience
Critic reviews
“In Motherlands, Weijia Pan recalls the China of the past and the United States of his present—and the vast connections between them, connections that exist as much in deep history as they do in immediate consciousness. In poems at once intricate and expansive, Pan considers the fact of displacement and the vagaries of translation, as re-creation, transformation, betrayal. Here, he finds opportunity in portraiture and music to consider both global injustice and the most delicate nuances of feeling. ‘Time’s time’s timestamp,’ he writes, ‘which means that time keeps its own records.’ And what records these are—imagined in brilliant poems by an essential young poet.”—Kevin Prufer, author of The Fears
“In Weijia Pan’s brilliant first collection, Motherlands, the personal is political—and imaginary. And historical. But also, made entirely from our collective moment in the world. Contemporary environments blend temporally with great thinkers and artists of the past. Pan and his speakers are in a deep and deeply felt conversation with time itself. And Pan captures these complexities in language with so much crackle and verve, so much strange and surprising energy, with such animated stories and interesting information, that I couldn’t put the book down. Motherlands is a singular accomplishment by one of the most dynamic new voices in contemporary poetry.”—Erin Belieu, author of Come-Hither Honeycomb
“How intimate and personal the vast forces of history—history of country, family, art—become in Motherlands, Weijia Pan’s striking debut. In one poem, Pan tries to leave China a voicemail; in another, he imagines a grandfather home from guerrilla war, being handed a broken bowl. Wit and empathy inform these poems, and a love of music and poetry—as well as a time-taught sense of the precariousness of peace, of a time when ‘an invisible hand’ might grab his shoulders, to say: ‘Are you Weijia? Something’s happened. Come this way.’”—Dana Levin, author of Now Do You Know Where You Are
“From his father’s ‘flip-flops making a broken ragtime on the street’ to playing a Liszt é tude that evokes Stalin marking death warrants with non-photo blue pencils, Weijia Pan writes with verve and transforms the personal into cultural history. Motherlands is a remarkable debut.”—Arthur Sze, author of Sight Lines
Related to this topic
-
Hillbilly Elegy
- A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
- By: J. D. Vance
- Narrated by: J. D. Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over 40 years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
-
-
In Mamaw's Contradictions Lay Great Wisdom
- By Cynthia on 11-20-16
By: J. D. Vance
-
The Women
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kristin Hannah
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
-
-
WOW. Just Wow
- By Joanne DeVuono on 02-08-24
By: Kristin Hannah
-
The Briar Club
- A Novel
- By: Kate Quinn
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship. Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own.
-
-
History with a dash of sass
- By Elizabeth S. on 07-15-24
By: Kate Quinn
-
Atomic Habits
- An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- By: James Clear
- Narrated by: James Clear
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
-
-
Author went overboard hawking his site
- By CHughes on 06-25-19
By: James Clear
-
Eruption
- By: Michael Crichton, James Patterson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he’d been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world’s most popular storyteller.
-
-
I expected a better story
- By Robert Powers on 06-06-24
By: Michael Crichton, and others
-
48 Laws of Power
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 23 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. This bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other infamous strategists. The 48 Laws of Power will fascinate any listener interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.
-
-
You don't have to be a psychopath to like this.
- By Gaggleframpf on 02-25-16
By: Robert Greene
-
Hillbilly Elegy
- A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
- By: J. D. Vance
- Narrated by: J. D. Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis - that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over 40 years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
-
-
In Mamaw's Contradictions Lay Great Wisdom
- By Cynthia on 11-20-16
By: J. D. Vance
-
The Women
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Kristin Hannah
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.
-
-
WOW. Just Wow
- By Joanne DeVuono on 02-08-24
By: Kristin Hannah
-
The Briar Club
- A Novel
- By: Kate Quinn
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship. Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own.
-
-
History with a dash of sass
- By Elizabeth S. on 07-15-24
By: Kate Quinn
-
Atomic Habits
- An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- By: James Clear
- Narrated by: James Clear
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results. If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
-
-
Author went overboard hawking his site
- By CHughes on 06-25-19
By: James Clear
-
Eruption
- By: Michael Crichton, James Patterson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, ER, Twister, and Westworld, had a passion project he’d been pursuing for years, ahead of his untimely passing in 2008. Knowing how special it was, his wife, Sherri Crichton, held back his notes and the partial manuscript until she found the right author to complete it: James Patterson, the world’s most popular storyteller.
-
-
I expected a better story
- By Robert Powers on 06-06-24
By: Michael Crichton, and others
-
48 Laws of Power
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 23 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills 3,000 years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. This bold volume outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other infamous strategists. The 48 Laws of Power will fascinate any listener interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.
-
-
You don't have to be a psychopath to like this.
- By Gaggleframpf on 02-25-16
By: Robert Greene