A photo of Su Cho.

Su Cho’s The Symmetry of Fish


Congratulations to Su Cho for her debut poetry collection The Symmetry of Fish, published by Penguin Books. Winner of the National Poetry Series, Cho’s collection explores immigration, family, and language. At the heart of the collection is a coming-of-age narrative, and Cho offers insights about how language changes and condenses over generations, not diluted but distilled.

Each year, the National Poetry Series chooses five poetry manuscripts to publish, with the goal of increasing the number of poetry collections published and available. Paige Lewis, author of Space Struck, chose Su Cho’s manuscript for publication.

In her debut collection, The Symmetry of Fish, Su Cho presents us with a speaker who attempts to separate seemingly unlike things: the religious and flippant, the fishbone from the flesh, herself from her memories. In one poem Cho writes of a desire ‘to isolate these moments / pipette them into test tubes / whirl them in a centrifuge.’ Lucky for us, this turns out to be an impossible endeavor. Instead, we are graced with a glorious combination of the incompatible…

Paige lewis, author of Space Struck

Su Cho’s essay “Cleaving Translation” won the 2019 Wabash Prize in Nonfiction. She was a finalist for the 2019 Black Warrior Review Nonfiction Contest and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. To learn more about her, visit her website.

This poetry is quite marvelous. All hits no skips. I was incredibly moved by these poems about family and immigration and the relationship we have to languages. I particularly loved the poem about translating for parents. I look forward to more from Su Cho.

Roxane gay, author of Hunger

The Symmetry of Fish will be available October 11, 2022. To preorder the collection, go here.

Contributor Update: Chelsea Dingman

Chelsea DingmanWe’re so excited to report that Chelsea Dingman’s first full-length book, Thaw, is forthcoming from the University of Georgia Press (2017) and will be published this fall. Thaw was chosen by Allison Joseph to win the National Poetry Series in 2016, and the University of Southern Florida reports that Ms. Joseph described the book as “beautifully wrought and, dare I say, heartfelt…Dingman is not afraid to move emotions here, there and everywhere.”

Thaw by Chelsea DingmanThe University of Southern Florida, where Chelsea teaches, shares more details about Thaw:

“The imagery of her poems explores the invitation and impermanence of landscapes. The book is loosely based on Dingman’s childhood and grounded in the landscapes of western Canada, although the experiences of the narrator are imagined. Florida is also represented in the book when the speaker moves and a question of personal exile arises.”

In her upcoming Authors Talk podcast, which will go live April 28, Chelsea says, “In writing Thaw, I feel like it’s been a book that I’ve been trying to write for 20 years.” She also shares:

“It [Thaw] explores the issues of family violence, poverty, kinship, death, abuse, and grief…It also explores the speaker’s roles as mother, child, daughter, wife, sister, and citizen, and how family can sometimes be the thing that keeps us sane, while other times it can be the thing we run from.”

You can access Chelsea’s poems in Issue 18 of Superstition Review. You can also stay updated with Chelsea’s website.

#ArtLitPhx: MFA Reading Series – Sarah Vap, Dexter L. Booth, and Patricia Colleen Murphy

MFA Reading Series - ASUPoets Sarah Vap, Dexter L. Booth, and Patricia Colleen Murphy will read from their recent work at Hayden Library on the Tempe Campus as part of the MFA Alumni Reading Series, presented by ASU’s Creative Writing Program. The event takes place on Thursday, September 22nd. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the reading begins at 7:00 p.m. A book signing and reception with light refreshments will follow the reading.

Sarah Vap received her MFA from Arizona State University. Vap is the author of six collections of poetry. Her most recent book, Viability, was selected by Mary Jo Bang for the National Poetry Series, and was released by Penguin in 2016.

Dexter L. Booth earned an MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University. His collection Scratching the Ghost was selected by Major Jackson for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

Patricia Colleen Murphy, a graduate of ASU’s MFA Program in Creative Writing, founded Superstition Review at Arizona State University, where she teaches creative writing and magazine production. Her collection, Hemming Flames, was selected by Stephen Dunn for the May Swenson Poetry Award.

The event is free of charge and is open to the public. For more information please visit the ASU page and/or the Facebook event.