To Be Read: Cynthia Dewi Oka

Poet of the week, Lizz Huerta, writes: "The poet I admire is Cynthia Dewi Oka. Her first poetry collection, Nomad of Salt and Hard Water came out in 2012. I met Cynthia in 2009 at the VONA workshop for writers of color. As soon as I heard her read a couple of her poems I knew I wanted to read more. Her work is an incredible dance between ferocity and vulnerability. She writes these beautiful pieces wrought with personal narrative, mythology and politics. There is a musicality to her work that is dizzying at times, and I find myself re-reading certain lines just for the sound of them. She is a important voice, one that sings, moves, transforms."