Helli Fang's Village of Knives dives headfirst into harrowing poems that call forth the experiences of Asian American identity and generational tension. Helli Fang's stunning collection throws readers into the challenging realities of growing up in America as a child of immigrants . These powerful poems investigate the tension between one's familial culture and the world's perception of that culture. Fang's poetry lays bare the difficulties of navigating these disparate influences through striking language and vivid imagery . Village of Knives also relays intimate moments of familial strife , with a particular focus on parental expectations . Readers looking for a poems about generational differences and culture clashes will love Fang's collection for its frank but tender honesty. This collection also features a bespoke interview with the writer at then end of the book, delving deeper into the craft , influences , and life behind their work. "Train-sounds, dew-sounds, sounds from the hair, prayerful sounds and python sounds, fish market then mooncake sounds, sounds of falling into water, sounds of rising from fire-these are the sounds of Village of Knives, a collection that speaks through how much, how closely and imaginatively it listens. The poems here listen to immigrant life and dream, to gendered expectation and subversion, to desire, to the body's surging, briny rhythms. This is a poet who understands the power of paring away the noise to zero in on the music: 'How we turned off all the lights in the house / & fell to our knees / just to hear the sound of bone.'" - Chen Chen, author of When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities"Fierce and full of teeth, these poems are living creatures that will eat you alive. Helli Fang crafts each surprising image with care and incisiveness, pr obing the past and its living lineage of violence, migration, and love. Village of Knives is razor-sharp and lyrical, full of language that is both divine and bodily, grief-ridden and ecstatic. These poems give us a new and necessary vocabulary for displacement, diasporic desire, and daughterhood. Fang reminds us that language is a weapon and a refuge, a site of resistance and memory and regeneration. Her words reach for the light beyond loss." - K-Ming Chang, author of Past Lives, Future Bodies Helli Fang is an undergraduate student at Bard College. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Diode, The Margins, Salt Hill, The Adroit Journal, DIALOGIST, Columbia Journal, Blueshift Journal, Wildness, and more, and has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Columbia College of Chicago, and Bennington College. She has also participated in programs such as Iowa Young Writer's Workshop, The Adroit Mentorship Program, and The Speakeasy Project. Currently, she works as the communications intern for Kundiman. When Helli is not writing, she enjoys playing the violin and climbing trees. is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (2022), finalist for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (2017), longlisted for the National Book Award. Both books are published by BOA Editions and by Bloodaxe Books in the UK. His latest chapbook is Explodingly Yours (Ghost City Press, 2023). His honors include the Thom Gunn Award, three Pushcart Prizes, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and United States Artists. His work appears in many publications, including Poem-a-Day and Ploughshares. His poems are also reprinted in many anthologies, including 100 Queer Poems, 100 Poems That Matter, three editions of The Best American Poetry, two editions of The Forward Book of Poetry, and The Norton Introduction to Literature (15th edition). Chen has taught at UMass Boston, the University of Southern Maine, Antioch University Los Angeles, and Brandeis University as the 2018-2022 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence. Currently he teaches for the MFA program at New England College. He edits the online poetry journals, Underblong and the lickety split. He holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD from Texas Tech University. He lives in Rochester, NY with his partner and their pug, Mr. Rupert Giles.