Key themes
- The immigrant body — between two histories
- Love and violence as simultaneous inheritances
- The lyric 'I' that is always being constructed
About this book
Tender, violent poems of family, war and desire; a striking debut collection.
Published in 2016, Night Sky with Exit Wounds won the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. It announced Vuong as one of the most significant poets of his generation before he published his debut novel.
Discussion questions
- Many poems in the collection deal with the Vietnamese-American experience and the specific violence of the war. How does Vuong make historical violence personal — and how does the lyric form serve this?
- The body — desired, damaged, inherited — is central to the collection. How does Vuong develop the body as a lyric subject — and what does poetry allow him to do that prose cannot?
- Vuong's father is largely absent; his mother is a constant, complicated presence. How does the collection develop these family relationships — and what is it saying about what children inherit from parents who survived trauma?
- The collection is notable for its lyricism and formal range. How does Vuong vary form — and what does the movement between formal structures achieve?
- Vuong published this collection before his novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. How do the two works relate — and what does the poetry offer that the prose withholds?
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