12/29/2020 0 Comments Eugenia Leigh :: Joan Kwon Glass
Eugenia Leigh is the Korean American author of the poetry collection Blood,
Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, 2014), winner of the Debut-litzer Prize in Poetry and finalist for Yale’s Series of Younger Poets. I first read Eugenia’s book in 2017, the year that I lost both my sister and her 11-year-old son (my nephew) to suicide. In the midst of acute grief and PTSD, her poetry was one of the few things I could hear inside what felt like a rubber bubble, keeping me safely apart from the world. As a biracial, Korean American woman, I longed for poems that could reach me, and I found them. In spite of the fact that South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, the Korean American community as a whole has long insisted on silence when it comes to suicide, abuse, and violence. I have turned to Eugenia’s poetry in my own writing process, when I’ve needed courage and inspiration. Her poetry sings, wails, and whispers. Eugenia’s latest poem to be published, “Gold,” can be found in the Summer, 2020, issue of Pleaides, as part of a folio of Korean American poets, edited by E.J. Koh. “Gold” brings us full circle, back to “Deciding Not to Drown Today” by exploring the reasons why we should step back from those rocks, and stay. ~Joan Kwon Glass
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