Replica (Wisconsin Poetry Series) - Softcover

Lisa Low

Softcover

ISBN 10: 029935654X ISBN 13: 9780299356545

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2026

Synopsis

Stand-up comedy, a celebrity non-apology, observations of racism, and the slipperiness of nostalgia underpin Replica. In poignant, witty poems, Lisa Low navigates the tensions of solidarity and hostility in white spaces as she sets out to write differently about race. “The problem of being with a white man is also a problem of writing,” Low states in a prose poem that turns writing about identity on its head. She peers in from the outside, as if through an open ceiling: “Like any good girl, / I became good / at watching myself.” The poem itself becomes a site of investigation, reimagined as a dollhouse, a stage with props, an image the speaker wears like a bodysuit. These powerful and direct poems offer a counterpoint to constricting narratives about Asian American identity. Sure to appeal to readers of Monica Youn and Claudia Rankine, Replica asks what it means to represent yourself and your experiences in a world where you are indistinguishable from others.

About this title

About the Author

Lisa Low is the author of Crown for the Girl Inside, winner of the Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest from YesYes Books. Her poems have appeared in Copper Nickel, Ecotone, The Massachusetts Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and elsewhere, and her nonfiction was awarded the Gulf Coast Nonfiction Prize. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize, she earned her MFA from Indiana University and PhD from the University of Cincinnati. She lives in Chicago.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

“Under a red-and-white bull’s eye,

I could be anywhere in America. Like

freshman year of college in Houston, away
 

from home for the first time, I missed

everything I knew and went to Target.”

—Excerpt from “At Target in Bloomington”

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 029935654X
• ISBN 13: 9780299356545
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96