New Book Announcement: “The Cloud That Fell From the Sky” by Judy Choi and Phoenix Brown

The Cloud That Fell From the Sky, Phoenix Bown, Judy Choi, Francis George (photo) (Tigrefou Editions, November 2018)
The Cloud That Fell From the Sky, Phoenix Bown, Judy Choi, Francis George (photo) (Tigrefou Editions, November 2018)

The debut poetry book from Chinese-American writers Judy Choi and Phoenix Brown.

Phoenix Brown, who was fifteen years old at the time, was using poetry as a way to cope with her parents’ drug  addiction.  Often sad and dark, her words provide an introspection into the adolescent mindset, expressing the loneliness and emptiness she was feeling due to the absence of her parents from her life.

Judi Choi’s writing is a textual journey of rhythm and rhyme as she uses poetry to  traverse through love, loss, and hope.  What makes her writing particular is the ability to bring a sing song quality often found in Chinese “shi” to a poem written in  English. Her poems are deceptively simple but contain multifarious and even disparate meanings.

Words… are moments… that become forever.  This is a book… of moments… sometimes tragic, sometimes hopeful, at times desperate, and often soulful.  Each poem is then interpreted into a photo that is deliberately abstract and aimed at the readers’ ability to see what their imagination allows. This poetry/art book showcases how writing and photographs can capture the rawness of the human experience.  Hand bound, using traditional Asian stitching, this 152-page book features 85 original images and 55 poems.

 

The Cloud That Fell From the Sky by Judy Choi and Phoenix Brown
Tigrefou Editions, November 2018 (ISBN 9780998899800)