Ciara Lightner

As you have probably no doubt guessed, dear reader, I have a huge fondness for poetry. Poetry allows us to say the things we normally find unsayable. And in doing so, we can better connect, not only to ourselves but to each other. So here are some of our latest poetry books to aid in your quest to say the unsayable.

36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem is the latest work by writer Nam Le. Le explores the diaspora as a result of the Vietnamese war, and the lasting effect on those that have been displaced from their homeland. Centering on the concept of identity, Le shows how detrimental it is to have your concept of self stripped away, and replaced with another’s idea of you. Le mocks the mask that is forced upon him, forcing the reader to contend with their own assumptions and prejudices. Le plays with form, taking the standard concepts and breaking them to create a new way of looking at language itself. Le’s work is an exploration of how one can reclaim an identity dismantled by colonialism.

Mirror Nation by Don Mee Choi, is another writer exploring diaspora, this time looking through the lens of the Gwangju uprising. Choi uses her father’s photographs and personal recollections to inform of a time that has been glossed over. Choi’s father, a photographer working with reporters during this time, saw the violence first hand and came close several times to experiencing it himself. Choi takes this knowledge and bridges it to the present in her own struggles to understand herself and the land her family had to leave. Dealing with her own sense of self, Choi investigates her past to ground herself in the present and reconnect with who she might have been.

With My Back to the World is another stellar work by Victoria Chang. Using the abstract paintings and writings of Agnes Martin, Chang delves into the matter of identity itself. Chang is trying to answer the question of who she is and what it means to be a woman while dealing with her own depression and the subsequent death of her father. Martin’s work allows Chang to delve deeper into her own mind and understand how art is a conduit to understanding ourselves. Chang’s poems seem to question what lies at the crossroads of being a woman and being Asian and how to honor both in a society that values neither.

Enjoy these new poetry books and discover much more at your local library.

Black History Month has arrived! This year’s theme is African Americans and the Arts, and here are some of the latest poetry books to celebrate with this month and all year round.

Aster of Ceremonies is the latest work from esteemed author Jjjjjerome Ellis. Ellis seeks to connect the past and present through their work by invocating people that were once listed as runaway slaves. They seek to reform the idea of the enslaved person running away as a loss of property, to a person regaining their freedom. Furthering the connection, Ellis draws on the fact that many of these ancestors have a stutter, something that Ellis has as well. Ellis celebrates their stutter, theirs, and the ancestors,’ not only through the poetry of the work but also through music as well. Nature also is a driving force of the work, acting as authorities over the land both in the past and for Ellis in the present. Poignant and beautiful, Ellis’s work acts as a gateway into our collective past as a means to define our future.

Plantains and Our Becoming by Melania Luisa Marte is a work that grabbles with the nature of colonialism and identity. Marte, a musician as well as a poet, looks at what it means to exist as an Afro-Latina when that word doesn’t even exist in the dictionary. The work flows through both English and Spanish and explores the experiences her families faced in their travels from the Dominican Republic and Haiti to the United States. Marte is able to take the stories passed down the generations of her family to write her own story and make a new journey of her own. Her work also explores how a woman’s beauty is a commodity to be used, as long as it does not benefit the woman herself too much. Referencing icons such as Cardi B and Megan thee Stallion, Marte shows that even with fame, femicide is still a risk. Marte’s debut work is a celebration not just of her legacy, but all those who look to define themselves.

Tender Headed is the debut work of Olatunde Osinaike and is an exploration of the intersection of masculinity and blackness. It is there that Osinaike finds himself at a crossroads of the man he was taught to be and the man he wants to become. Osinaike’s work is unafraid to put its heart on its sleeve and appear vulnerable. It is through this vulnerability that Osinaike hopes growth will happen. That in taking accountability, the current generation can hope to leave some of the pain of the past generation behind them. While there are moments of heaviness, and melancholy, there are also moments of joy and love. The author looks into a future with his own children and sees the endless possibilities if the hard work is down now. Osinaike’s work is not a condemnation of masculinity, rather a celebration of what it could be.

Check out these works and more! Happy Black History Month!

Have you been eyeing that new game but aren’t sure that you want to commit to buying it? Video games have arrived at A.K. Smiley Public Library! As our collection grows, here’s a quick look at just a few our recently acquired titles.

Get ready to bash Bowser once again in the new Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Rated E for Everyone) for Nintendo Switch. Mario and his friends have arrived in the nearby Flower Kingdom and are ready to explore. Bowser arrives as well with a very different goal in mind. Help Mario and his friends save the kingdom in an adventure that returns Mario to the traditional side-scrolling format of the original games. Play by yourself in single player mode or team up with friends in co-op mode. Find new power-ups and use them to stop Bowser and his henchmen.

Looking for a cute and quirky roguelite that relies heavily on stealth? Try out Nintendo Switch’s Haunted House (Rated E10 for Everyone 10 and up). Lyn Graves must brave a mansion full of ghosts and ghouls in order to rescue her uncle and friends. Players must solve puzzles and defeat bosses with their sneaking skills at the forefront. With such limited combat, players must rely on critical thinking skills instead of brute force. And due to its roguelite elements, every time a player is knocked out, the levels change, bringing unpredictability to the gameplay.

Spider-Man returns in Spider-Man 2 (Rated T for Teen) for the PlayStation 5. In this action-adventure, play not only as Peter Parker but also as Miles Morales as they take on villains in New York. Taking place around a year after the events of the first game, Morales and Parker are both trying to cope with the realities of being Spidermen and adults. The game’s open world format allows for hours of exploration as well as the chance to try out new abilities for both. Use your new powers to fight enemies like Kraven the Hunter, Lizard, and a new iteration of Venom while trying to find balance of life both inside and outside the suit.

Fulfill your prime directives in RoboCop: Rogue City for Xbox Series X (Rated M for Mature). Play as the titular character as you try to snuff out corruption in Detroit by any means necessary. Arrest criminals, investigate crimes, and issue parking tickets. But be warned, the choices you make will have consequences. This first-person shooter with a linear storyline will appeal to fans of the movies with cameos and Easter eggs. While this might be a brand-new story, Peter Weller reprises his role from the original movies to voice the game. Action abounds as you protect the innocent and uphold the law.

Interested in helping us expand our collection? The Library accepts gently used copies of games from the following systems: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switch, and Wii. Games will be added to the circulating collection for patron use. Have suggestions for the collection, let us know! Happy Gaming, Gamers!

-Ciara Lightner is a library specialist at A.K. Smiley Public Library who is currently playing Barbie’s Dreamhouse Adventure…because it’s fun.

The spooky season is upon us once again! This time of year always calls for chills and thrills, and what do many of our favorite scary books and movies have in common? Many of them rely on science fiction to create a sense of dread. Movies like Alien, The Thing, and Us use science fiction’s ‘what if’ to create a sense of ‘okay, no thank you.’ Here are some new works taking up the charge of science fiction/horror to enjoy this fall.

In their debut work, The Scourge Between Stars, Ness Brown’s characters face-off with an alien horror. On their way back to Earth from a failed colony, the crew of the Calypso are on the brink of mutiny. The ship’s captain has disappeared, leaving his second-in-command and daughter, Jacklyn, in charge. And if a crew of starving people isn’t bad enough, the ship has been damaged so badly that they cannot see what is in their path so they are essentially hurtling blind through space. But all of those are minor in comparison to their biggest problem. There is something else on board with the crew. And it is very hungry. Jacklyn must fight to keep her crew alive and figure out how to navigate back home before it is too late.

David Wellington’s latest work Paradise-1, is not a trip to a pleasure planet as the title might entail. Special Agent Petrova has been sent there for a wellness check on humanity’s first deep space colony. Petrova, having spectacularly failed to show that her station was earned and not the result of nepotism, is sent there along with a disgraced and haunted Dr. Zhang and a recently reinstated pilot Sam. The three awaken at their arrival under attack by another ship from Paradise-1 and must fight for their lives against an enemy that fights in insidious new ways. Petrova must stay alive and complete her mission but how do you fight an enemy that infects your mind with a single thought?

Focusing on the issues of race, class, and prejudice, The World Wasn’t Ready for You by Justin C. Key is a collection of short stories that shows the darkness that lies at the heart of humanity. Key uses the many horror and science fiction tropes to explore the problems with society: a father who would do anything to leave prison and return to his family, even submit himself to horrific experiments, a child haunted by a doll after witnessing his brother’s death. Even a husband willing to cheat death to bring his wife back. Key manages to bring a new perspective to the genre and leaves readers with some new unsettling truths.

Enjoy these creepy, crawly creations, and Happy Halloween!

Summer continues to swelter on, sending us all scampering inside to savor the sweet sensation of … air conditioning. I couldn’t think of another s word. Either way, while you are waiting for cooler weather, here are some new poetry books to help you pass the time.  

Buffalo Girl by Jessica Q. Stark, starts with a warning. Stark aligns being a woman with being Little Red Riding Hood, and society as the Wolf waiting to devour her. But Little Red has much more agency than is realized and holds some dangers of her own. Exploring her mother’s immigration to the U.S. from Vietnam, Stark shows the racism faced by a family just trying to exist, the worst coming from the ones who should have been the most understanding. Oscillating between the past and the present, Stark explores her own upbringing as a part Vietnamese woman, and feeling alienated from it. Both women deal with a world that treats women’s bodies as a commodity and find ways to navigate that world. Stark uses her mother’s photography to create collages in the work to create an almost storybook-like effect, and shows that finding a way out may mean having to find a way in.  

Auto/Body by Vickie Vertiz is an examination of how the expectations on the bodies we inhabit, the lives we live, and the society around us, can sometimes use a tune-up. Growing up surrounded by car culture, Vertiz seeks to understand the inner workings of her youth. Vertiz explores the mechanisms of colonialism and racial violence perpetuated by society, and how even now colonies do not benefit from colonialism. Vertiz seeks to show how in womanhood, there is a lack of ownership of their own bodies afforded to women. But she also finds joys and pleasure in the body and finds community within the queer culture. Society often tells us what is wrong with our identities and our bodies, but what if we were our own mechanics, would we find the same diagnosis? 

Skeletons by Deborah Landau is a fun delve into what hides beneath the flesh. Starting at the beginning of the pandemic, Landau seeks to understand not just the bodies we inhabit, but how they connect to others. She remains impressively upbeat even in the wake of political turmoil and unprecedented public health crisis. Showing the isolation through the lockdown, Landau also shows the inherit loneliness that comes with being alive throughout her series of poems entitled “Skeletons.” Interspersing her “Skeletons” poems, the “Flesh” poems seek to uncover an understanding into our desires and the intimacy we find with others. Diving deep into what defines us, Landau seemingly finds what sustains us when the outside world ceases to make sense.  

Enjoy these books and more at A.K. Smiley Public Library, and let’s hope for some cooler weather soon.