Poetry. Asian American Studies. JAM ALERTS is the newest title from this important and prolific poet. "Linh Dinh is one of the most consistently surprising writers around. One can find sources & roots for his writing, explain the sources of surrealism through the presence, say, of the French in Vietnam (tho they were driven out a decade before he was born), note that he is hardly the only good or succesful Vietnamese American poety, let alone the only poet to come from a working class background, yet he is not writing 'about' or even 'toward' nor 'from' any one of these contexts so much as he is through them--they are lenses, filters that condition his perspective on everyday life. Imagine what any other poet with this strong a sense of form would have to become in order to write such poetry...Linh is writing straightforward poetry, but from a perspective shared by almost no one else. This kind of exile is far deeper than mere geography"--Ron Silliman. Be sure to check out Linh Dinh's BORDERLESS BODIES and AMERICAN TATTS, both currently available from SPD.