THE MACHINE AUTOCORRECTS CODE TO I
AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD.
Winner of the 2024 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize
Washington Writer’s Publishing House
ISBN: 978-1-941551-43-1 /trade paperback/$18.95
Official on-sale date: October 8, 2024
Radiant – witty, surprising, both fiercely committed and imaginative. A wild delight of a book! – Anne Boyer, author of The Undying, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
In this dynamic arc of poems, Chanlee Luu details cultural folklore, the bizarre enterprise of being alive, and the familial and personal intimacies that tether the Vietnamese and English languages. Luu’s deceptively digestible syntax gives way to strange scenes in which “Vietnamese moms secretly rave,” “Inertia becomes chaos,” and we receive lessons in chemical engineering. Luu’s lyrical landscapes cover numerous far-flung cities. I found myself thinking of the eclectic poetics of Christine Shan Shan Hou, and also of Harryette Mullen—but don’t be mistaken: Chanlee Luu sounds like no one else other than herself. – Diana Khoi Nguyen, author of Root Fractures and Ghost Of.
At once zany and controlled, inventive and attuned to poetic tradition, Chanlee Luu’s debut collection marries languages and disciplines (chemistry, literature, music, math) in ways that feel unexpected yet natural. With a stealth abecedarian, with golden shovels that could slip by unnoticed if they were not labeled, Luu shows equal adeptness at free and unfree verse and an abiding sense of music and story. Opening into a fascinating mind, these poems enlighten, surprise, and delight. – Adrienne Su, author of Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: Essays and Interviews and Peach State.
In her debut, Luu writes “hām from Old English, / meaning a gathering of souls, / a village, and yes, you might mistake / that”. Citing Britney Spears and Vietnamese music, she draws inspiration from her background in chemical engineering to Rush Hour 3. Luu gathers a village of writers, from Ocean Vuong and Diana Khoi Nguyen, Franny Choi and Kien Lam, as well as the symmetric stanzas of Tyehimba Jess’ Olio to take you on a rollercoaster ride where the next turn is unseen. Luu stands with her feet in two cultures, yet with the ground firmly planted beneath her. –Stella Wong, author of Stem and Spooks.
A knock-out debut that erases the boundaries of time and geography with unrestrained wit, The Machine Autocorrects Code to I holds its subjects – family members at odds with their hopes and fears, various fruits and animals constrained by the laws of humans, and an alien seeking beauty in the world – with tenderness and wry knowledge of the fragile systems that hold their world in place. This universe of poems wanders through the messy past, battles in the charged present, and dreams/nightmares to the unknown future. In this experiment in forms, Chanlee Luu is a mad scientist, cracking Asian jokes, shoveling golden sand, and coding her voice to vitality. The 86-page debut poetry collection features original artwork by Anthony Le and the interior features illustrations by Chanlee Luu.
Chanlee Luu is a Vietnamese-Chinese American writer from Martinsville, VA, currently residing in Roanoke, VA. She received her MFA in creative writing at Hollins University and BS in chemical engineering and minor in Global Sustainability from the University of Virginia, where she competed in poetry slams. Photo credit: Paris Reinhard