Poetry. Asian American Studies. VOX ANGELICA was Timothy Liu's first book of poems. As his work developed over the course of many other prize-winning books, Liu's work proved to be generally shocking, although the shock was perhaps less the shock of recognition than the shock of estrangement. Jean Valentine comments that, "These poems do sing: they are candid, grateful for the experience itself, and taken up from a mysterious depth." Born and raised in San Jose by mainland Chinese immigrant parents, Liu's work both reflects and complicates the between-spaces of this background. Switching from the sexual to the religious with tremendous fluidity, Liu brings an unmistakably lyrical sensibility to every line, every poem. Liu was later chosen to be the editor of WORD OF MOUTH: AN ANTHOLOGY OF GAY AMERICAN POETRY (also available at SPD).
