Ocean Vuong

Superstition Review Staff Book Recommendations

Superstition Review

Join Superstition Review in reading our favorite books. Below is a list of recommendations from Superstition Review’s trainees and interns.

I recommend On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. Written in letter format, Vuong’s story of his life as an immigrant is told with vulnerability and grace. He remembers his childhood in the US along with the stories that his mother and grandmother told him from their lives in Vietnam. Throughout the novel, Vuong realizes truths about himself and his family. I was immersed by the lyrical style and was impressed by how Vuong’s imagery stood out- this truly is a unique novel.

Madeline Lewis, Content Coordinator

I’d like to recommend Jay Heinrichs’ Thank You for Arguing because I have found it to be a very useful guide in learning the art of persuasion and the power of compromise through agreement. It’s a fun read with the author’s humor and difficult concepts are simplified for the average reader. I would highly encourage people to give it a read since it’s an entertaining and informative book.

Kayla Morales, Advertising Coordinator

Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. This book is an autobiography about Noah’s childhood in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Being mixed-race, Noah was literally a crime, and couldn’t be seen in public with neither of his parents. It’s a hilarious and mind-opening story about race, identity, and family.

Khanh Nguyen, Trainee

My book recommendation is Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo. It is a memoir and it is absolutely heart wrenching, captivating, and beautiful. Although it is a memoir, its form becomes poetry and then prose and then narrative and it is so intelligent! It is also great to learn about immigration issues in the United States and it is so relatable for Latinx immigrants in the United States. I found a home in this book. 

Carolina Quintero, Poetry Editor

Welcome to Night Vale by Joesph Fink and Jefferey Cranor. I chose this book because I absolutely love the podcast that led to this book. The characters are compelling, as is the world that the two authors have created. But, most of all, I love the writing style of the Welcome to Night Vale series. The unorthodox descriptions and the ways that the authors play with tropes are so interesting to me, and I love to read interesting stories about interesting people.

Charlie Saifi, Social Media Manager

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Middlesex explores gender identity and the problem space of societal norms and expectations of gender roles. The novel follows a Greek family, particularly an intersex individual named Cal, as they hide, ignore, understand and accept that their gender identities don’t match those shown in and perpetuated by popular culture. A beautifully-written, page-turning story, it’s no surprise it won a Pulitzer Prize. I love this book because it challenges gender stereotypes and investigates the complexities of defining people. 

Sara Walker, Trainee

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker. This book is about a small college town that is plagued by a sleeping sickness. The difficulties faced by Walker’s characters mirror some of the current challenges we are all facing during the global pandemic. Reading this novel inspired me to consider how important it is to take care of one’s community in trying and uncertain times. Compassion and empathy can get us through any hardship.

Erin Peters, Student Editor-in-Chief

#ArtLitPhx: Ocean Vuong and Camille Rankine in Phoenix

Superstition Review

Ocean Vuong and Camille Rankine

The Poetry Center at the University of Arizona is proud to present Ocean Vuong and Camille Rankine reading at the Phoenix Art Museum (1625 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85004) on April 7th at 7pm.  The opening reader for the night will be Joel Salcido. After the reading, there will be a short Q&A and a book signing. For more information visit The Poetry Center’s website.

Born a Los Angeles cockroach and smuggled to the Westside of Phoenix, Joel Salcido translates the poetry of the barrio pigeons into brujería. He is blessed with a beautiful wife and two sons (and another on the way) as well as a cadre of talentedly mad brothers, friends, coconspirators and fellow hood radicals. He writes poetry and prose while building a boat out of editor’s rejection letters to float back to the moon. He is a member of the Gutta’ Collective, a group committed to sharing Black and Brown narratives through art and poetry to give a voice to the silent, isolated, and marginalized. Joel Salcido is an MFA candidate in poetry at Arizona State University

Ocean Vuong is the author of Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press, 2016). A 2016 Whiting Award winner and Ruth Lilly fellow, he has received honors from The Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, Narrative magazine, and a Pushcart Prize. His writings have been featured in the Kenyon Review, GRANTA, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Poetry, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he lives in New York City.

Camille Rankine’s first book of poetry, Incorrect Merciful Impulses, was published in January by Copper Canyon Press. She is the author of the chapbook Slow Dance with Trip Wire, selected by Cornelius Eady for the Poetry Society of America’s 2010 New York Chapbook Fellowship, and a recipient of a 2010 “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Atlas Review, American Poet, The Baffler, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Octopus Magazine, Paper Darts, Phantom Books, A Public Space, Tin House, and elsewhere. She is serves on the Executive Committee of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, and lives in New York City.