{"product_id":"west","title":"West","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eNational Book Award, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e2023 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eLonglist \u003c\/b\u003e* \"Elegiac and shot through with righteous anger, this essential collection demands a national reckoning.\"--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, STARRED REVIEW* \"A must-have for libraries.\" --\u003cem\u003eBooklist\u003c\/em\u003e, STARRED REVIEW\"A remarkable collection offering history not typically told in textbooks.\"--\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePunctuated by historical images and told through multiple voices, languages, literary forms and documents, \u003ci\u003eWest: A Translation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eexplores what unites and divides America, drawing a powerful, necessary connection between the completion of the transcontinental railroad and the Chinese Exclusion Act.In 2018, Utah Poet Laureate Paisley Rekdal was commissioned to write a poem commemorating the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad. The result is \u003ci\u003eWest: A Translation\u003c\/i\u003e--an unflinching hybrid collection of poems and essays that draws a powerful, necessary connection between the railroad's completion and the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943). Carved into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station, where Chinese migrants to the United States were detained during the Chinese Exclusion Act, is a poem elegizing a detainee who committed suicide. As \u003ci\u003eWest\u003c\/i\u003e translates this anonymous Chinese elegy character by character, what's left is a haunting narrative distilled through the history and lens of transcontinental railroad workers, and a sweeping exploration of the railroad's cultural impact on America. Punctuated by historical images and told through multiple voices, languages, literary forms and documents, \u003ci\u003eWest \u003c\/i\u003eexplores what unites and divides America, and how our ideas about American history creep forward, even as the nation itself constantly threatens to spiral back.\u003ci\u003eWest\u003c\/i\u003e is accompanied by a website (www.westtrain.org) which features video poems and encourages self-exploration of the transcontinental railroad's history through an interactive, non-linear structure. Pairing this urgent book and innovative website, Rekdal masterfully challenges how histories themselves get written and disseminated. The result is a tour de force of resistance and resilience.","brand":"Paisley Rekdal","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44816587882538,"sku":"9781556596568","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0690\/0891\/6522\/files\/west-8986096.jpg?v=1789040532","url":"https:\/\/thepoetryshop.com\/products\/west","provider":"The Poetry Shop LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}