Exploring the interlocking forces of sexuality and spirituality, Burnt Offerings continues the trajectory of Liu’s first collection of poems, Vox Angelica, which won the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Finalist for a Lambda Book Award in Gay Men’s Poetry.
ISBN: 9781556591044
Format: Paperback
Reviews
“Mapplethorpe’s photographs would be the visual equivalent: graphic, even brutal sexuality rendered in compositions that verge on the classical.” —Harvard Review
“This haunting and tender collection of poems is reminiscent in voice and technique of the poetry of Donald Justice, Robert Creeley, and Mary Oliver… Liu is particularly skilled in a postmodern, deadpan delivery of the toughest news about the interconnections between flesh and spirit, longing and desire. This work… presents the most eloquent elegies for a generation of young men lost to HIV/AIDS.” —Choice
“What distinguishes this poetry is Liu’s deft handling of graphic material, his skillful and taut braiding of it with an artful imagery and transcendent lyricism.” —Boston Review
“Lui’s poetic talents are coupled with an artistic sincerity that takes him where academic poets of yesteryear would not tread.” —James White Review
“Timothy Liu is a poet of eros in all guises.” —Lambda Book Report
“Liu’s second collection skillfully combines religious imagery with the earthy actions of the body, revealing a world of desire and holiness where the separation is often slight.” —Poetry East
“In giving voice to his thirst, Liu gives us a full look at how this gay, Chinese-American poet confronts experience and memory. What we read is both harsh and tender. Liu works toward an honest voice that tells how ghosts become the poet’s offering to the living… His is a resigned voice, speaking for beauty and passion in a dangerous world.” —Portlandia Review of Books