She, Self-Winding is a collection of poems that explores, through slanted narrative and shrewd linguistic play, the trajectory of an immigrant girl from a remote village who endures the aftermath of a civil war as she makes her escape by boat, leaves behind a home country, copes with domestic violence and abuse as a teenager, and grows up in a democratic Western society as a woman forming her own social and sexual paradigms, all in times of incredulity.
Publication date: September 2022
Publisher: Ugly Duckling Presse
Pre-Order: https://uglyducklingpresse.org/publications/she-self-winding/
Praise for Previous Work
Luu Dieu Van’s poems are interesting because of her skillful and exquisite usage of imagery. In fact, it’s a tour de force. In almost every single poem, one could find an intriguing effect created by the peculiar choice of words that she inserts at the right place and the right time.
Trinh Y Thu, author of The Ruins of Mirages
Luu Dieu Van’s poetry has a strong emphasis on diction, it employs a language which addresses the public. Her poetry is not for the page alone, it is also for the tongue, for the performance stage. It is a spoken voice, the audience will hear the wit of the words, the exuberance of the vernacular and the energy of the speech.
Nguyen Tien Hoang, author of Captive and Temporal
Rich in theme, with a brave and lively selection of imagery, Van excels at incisive observation—at times tragic, and more often than not, very funny.
Jennifer Mackenzie, author of Navigable Ink
Lưu Diệu Vân 