Bird Eating Bird: Poems (National Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Kristin Naca (Author)

Book Description

Series: National Poetry Series | Publication Date: September 29, 2009

A winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series mtvU Prize as selected by Yusef Komunyakaa (winner of the Pulitzer Prize), Kristin′s work perpetuates NPS′s tradition of promoting exceptional poetry from lesser known poets.

Her poems are playful and serious all at once. They explore the richness of her cultural and linguistic heritage, which spans the globe from Mexico to the Philippines. They defend with vigor and humor the color purple. And they analyze the insecurities of the letter ′h′ -- among other things.

For thirty years, the National Poetry Series has discovered many new and emerging voices and has been instrumental in launching the careers of poets and writers such as Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Denis Johnson, Cole Swensen, Thylias Moss, Mark Levine, and Dionisio Martinez.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vigorous, self-assured, self-consciously youthful and proudly bilingual, Naca's debut should get many times the attention afforded most poets' first books. Poems short and long, made of family anecdotes and (like Neruda's) of impressionistic lists, poems of remembered place (The Adoration at El Montan, set in San Antonio, Tex.) and poems of sexual joy between women give uncommon variety to the collection, even as Naca's fast pace, mixed English and Spanish (with bits of Tagalog), and first-person emphasis give it obvious unity. Spanish means there's another person/ inside you, she remembers her father saying. Poems composed originally in English mix with poems composed in Spanish and printed with her English translations. The next-to-last poem finds Naca in Mexico City, City so high that passion lacks heat... City where I spoke a word of Spanish, and like a spigot, my dreams squeezed shut. She also takes up, repeatedly, her Filipino-American background, the Pittsburgh of her youth, and the wide-open spaces she saw as an optimistic young writer in Nebraska. Chosen for the National Poetry Series' new mtvU award by Yusef Komunyakaa, the volume might be noticed by young people who may not otherwise purchase poetry but may discover Naca on cable TV. (Oct.)
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About the Author

Kristin Naca is a CFD Fellow at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she teaches Asian American and Latino poetry and creative writing. Her poems have appeared in Indiana Review, North American Review, and Rio Grande Review. She lives in Minneapolis.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; First Edition edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061782343
• ISBN-13: 978-0061782343
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #893,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mastery of multiple languages including the poetic, October 4, 2009

By 

Elizabeth Aoki "MFA" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Bird Eating Bird: Poems (National Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Bird Eating Bird is a dense tour de force that scarcely seems like a first book. It justly deserves its place in the National Poetry Series and as an MTV U award winner, as it hits the sweet spot of literary-skillful and highly accessible. Whether we are roaming the heartlands of Nebraska,the Philippines, Mexico City, or San Antonio Texas, Kristin Naca manages to take us there with vivid contemporary stories and linguistic precision.

"The nubs of the tongue site fat and bulky as flowers./ Say, *tree*. What's there but bare branches and some bark. /No words for putting layers of skin on spring yet."

That's the first three lines of "Not Yet." It sounds even better in Spanish as "Todavia No".

For those not used to reading translations or skeptical of how something "not in English" can rock your world, fear not the multi-lingual nature of this book of poems. The entirely-Spanish poems are translated. Any embedded non-English words make sense in context. And what makes the mastery so rare and wonderful is that none of this language shifting seems bolted or stapled on; Naca merely moves back and forth and the reader easily moves with her.

In addition to English, Spanish, and Tagalog it's fair to say that the language of the body is one the languages spoken here: from love in a motel room to a broken foot in a cast on a windowsill, to the exacting, tiny details of a woman's hands emerging from gloves. Besides adding sensuality and texture to the work, it also grounds the reader to the time,place, and culture of each poem, whether they themselves are from that time, place or culture themselves.

You will devour Bird Eating Bird, I promise you.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing., September 29, 2009

By 

J. Wahlgren "j paris" (boston) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bird Eating Bird: Poems (National Poetry Series) (Paperback)

This is a book of emotion & you can feel the emotion drip off of every page. Interactions with her father, birds & spanish all are woven together cohesively & disjointed, as Kumunyakaa says, witty & serious. I haven't found a better book this year. I can almost feel the happiness off of these pages, from a little one winning a big prize, to the craftiness of each of these poems. Bueno.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gorgeous!, December 9, 2009

By 

Sidecar (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bird Eating Bird: Poems (National Poetry Series) (Paperback)

One of the most masterful voices to have emerged in decades. Naca's poems manage to be elegant yet tough, languorous yet energetic, smart-ass, lyrical, and moving all at once. She explores the bone beneath the skin, the murmur of voices just beyond hearing.