So, Stranger

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Topaz Winters, 2022

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spilledinkandstories
04/13/23
April is #nationalpoetrymonth so I want to highlight my favorite poet, the incredible topazwinters ! I love how Topaz writes about emotion so viscerally, often tying feelings into the body or music, which makes the poem feel like something alive when you read it. Stranger is their latest collection with buttonpoetry and I highly recommend it! #bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #poetry
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topazwinters
08/22/22
the story so far • i’m exhausted & exhilarated, & we still have two more weeks of the #sostranger east coast tour! thank you to all who came out to my new york & massachusetts shows, & i’ll see you in new hampshire this week for shows at toadstoolbooks (tonight with dinnertheatrics), saphousemeadery (tomorrow with stefanhopwood), & slamfreeordie (thursday at starkbrewingco) • as always, tickets & details are linked in bio 🌊
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cozybec
05/19/22
"I went to the laundromat to pick up my spine but it wasn't ready yet, so I sat on the washing machine & waited, dwarfed by my own shadow." (OCD Litany) 👥 So, Stranger was one of those collections where I knew I would love it from the moment I saw it. It's an exploration of identity, familial relationships and history, and a discussion about what it feels like to be loved. 🤍 Topaz Winters absolutely nails so many different aspects of giving and taking - and feeling guilty about it all. I found myself loving every poem in this collection, they're all robust with rich imagery and word choice. The freeform nature of each poem was perfectly crafted, allowing the words to breathe off the page. Many poems built on prior ones in the collection, leaving a lasting impression. Truthfully, I could read a thousand more poems by Topaz Winters. This was an automatic five star and I cannot wait to read more by them! So, Stranger is OUT NOW where ever books are sold!! 🎉 If you'd like to read my full review, its live now on storygraph. (I'm cozybec on there as well!) Thank you so much to NetGalley and Button Poetry for providing me with a review copy! 🤍 . . . Image description: A photo of Rebecca holding onto a tablet. The background is a soft white blanket and a sage green blanket. On the tablet is the cover of 'So, Stranger' by Topaz Winters. + #netgalley #buttonpoetry #topazwinters #poetry #poetsofinstagram #poetryreview #bookrecs #poetrycommunity #bookish #bookreviewer #arcs #bookstagram #booksta #flatlay #bookrecs
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topazwinters
05/17/22
the most vulnerable collection of poetry i’ve ever written is out today. ‘so, stranger’ is my creation myth, an ode to the people & places that raised me, a meditation on what it means to be from everywhere & nowhere at once. this is the book i never thought i would release, & it’s beyond surreal to finally see it in the world & in readers’ hands. book publishing can often be an opaque process, but i wouldn’t be here without the quiet, constant support of so many. thank you to blythebaird, who coaxed the first seeds of this project into bloom. to taneshanicole313, sam van cooke, & buttonpoetry, who held & continue to hold my work with such wildly gentle hands. to tanvi dutta gupta & danieshokoohi, who have been here from the start. to monsoon season, which i am so grateful i never managed to escape. & of course, with every step & every breath, thank you to my father. you are in all of my poems, & i will always find my way back to you. if you’d like to support this collection, copies are available for purchase at the link in my bio or at your favourite independent bookstore. the best way to generate buzz for new releases is just by talking about them, so please do consider leaving a review on goodreads, the storygraph, amazon, or buttonpoetry.com! & whether you’ve been a reader of mine for years or found me yesterday, i am so grateful that you’re here at all. i see you, & i just want to make you proud. one of the last lines of ‘so stranger’ goes like this: “When you finally / walked off the plane it was 22 years late / & you were bowed beneath the weight / of all you’d survived.” this book is 22 years in the making, a story of being jetlagged from birth, mistaken into orbit, loved on both sides of the atlantic. whatever you have survived, wherever your blood calls home, i hope you can find a place to rest in a song of departure & arrival, dimples & daytime, saltwater & resurrection. it’s yours now. thank you for listening.
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topazwinters
05/17/22
the most vulnerable collection of poetry i’ve ever written is out today. ‘so, stranger’ is my creation myth, an ode to the people & places that raised me, a meditation on what it means to be from everywhere & nowhere at once. this is the book i never thought i would release, & it’s beyond surreal to finally see it in the world & in readers’ hands. book publishing can often be an opaque process, but i wouldn’t be here without the quiet, constant support of so many. thank you to blythebaird, who coaxed the first seeds of this project into bloom. to taneshanicole313, sam van cooke, & buttonpoetry, who held & continue to hold my work with such wildly gentle hands. to tanvi dutta gupta & danieshokoohi, who have been here from the start. to monsoon season, which i am so grateful i never managed to escape. & of course, with every step & every breath, thank you to my father. you are in all of my poems, & i will always find my way back to you. if you’d like to support this collection, copies are available for purchase at the link in my bio or at your favourite independent bookstore. the best way to generate buzz for new releases is just by talking about them, so please do consider leaving a review on goodreads, the storygraph, amazon, or buttonpoetry.com! & whether you’ve been a reader of mine for years or found me yesterday, i am so grateful that you’re here at all. i see you, & i just want to make you proud. one of the last lines of ‘so stranger’ goes like this: “When you finally / walked off the plane it was 22 years late / & you were bowed beneath the weight / of all you’d survived.” this book is 22 years in the making, a story of being jetlagged from birth, mistaken into orbit, loved on both sides of the atlantic. whatever you have survived, wherever your blood calls home, i hope you can find a place to rest in a song of departure & arrival, dimples & daytime, saltwater & resurrection. it’s yours now. thank you for listening.
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books.with.rabenfrau
05/13/22
𝓢𝓸, 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻, 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓲𝓷𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓼 𝓮𝓶𝓹𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼? With poetry, it can be a hit or miss situations. Sometimes, the verses don't get to you at all, don't let any emotions surface. But this poetry collection by Topaz Winters isn't one of those. What Winters creates here are some of the purest and raw lines I have read in a long time. It's full of emotion, both good and bad, of the relationship between family and 'the daughter', of history and prejudice. The poems are all individual, the setup different each time and yet quite fitting, no matter if you get a huge, ongoing text or a poem with deliberate spaces in between. This controls the flow of reading, sometimes even changes the whole meaning by just adding additional space. All in all, this is a wonderful poetry collection and I am grateful that I was allowed to read this one. #allthebooksmay22 #courtofreadingmay22 #prettybooks #booksofinsta #readersofinsta #bookstagramfeature #booksbooksbooks #bookreader #ihavethisthingwithbooks #ireadya #beautifulbooks #bookaddict #bookalicious #bookaholic #booklove #booksofig #readersofig #bookishfeatures #bibliophil #bookobsession #yabooks #yalit #yalove #readinglife #poetry #lyrik #bücherliebe
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topazwinters
05/03/22
“i’ve been jetlagged from birth, mistaken into orbit, loved on both sides of the atlantic.” • two weeks until #sostranger comes out from buttonpoetry! swipe for a poem, & link in bio to purchase 🌊
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bookstagramofmine
03/24/22
"in this world i am never so lonely that i laugh just to have something to wrap my hands around in this world i am no longer a list of unasked questions & the answer to each is no longer the word blasphemy in this world when the parts of me that are not made of water beg for mercy i spare them" Thank you NetGalley and Button Poetry for the chance to read and review the ARC for So, Stranger by Topaz Winters. This turned out to be a phenomenal collection on loss (for lack of a better word) and family. Topaz Winters is a great writer and puts her best foot forward with the first piece 'Departure Time.' My other favorites were 'Ars Poetica Il: Season Finale of the American Dream' and 'In your absence', which hit closer to home than I would like to admit. I'll be checking out more by this poet soon! #QOTD: would you rather be by the beach or in the mountains? #bookstagramofmine #bookstagram #bookreview #netgalley #arc #theyearofnetgalley #sostranger #topazwinters #booksta #booksaremymagic #bookpile #readreadread #bookwormlife #fiction #booksta #fictionbooks #bookishgiveaway #bookreviews #booklion #bookaddicts #bookaddiction #bookworld #booknerd #booksofinsta #bookstagram #bookblog #alwaysreading #bookstagrampak #poetry
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Description

Topaz Winters’ third poetry collection spans three countries & three generations. In a far-reaching & deftly-woven series of ars poeticas, Winters questions the boundary between the things we inherit & those we owe, stands at the grave of the American dream, & unspools the enormous grace & guilt of being loved.

So, Stranger stands as a fixed mark between the shifting histories & futures of being a daughter, being an artist, & being an immigrant. If its reader begins as a stranger, they end as part of a lineage: one both of grief & glory, of distance & arrival.

Awards

Praise for Topaz Winters

Topaz Winters’ So, Stranger is gorgeous. It’s a book filled with heart and possibility toward the future, while questioning the past and the present. The speaker navigates the knots of an immigrant family, love, pain, American ignorance, and existentialism. Every poem brims with the possibility of language and skillful and surprising aphorism, such as: ‘Make no mistake: this is not/a story about fear, it is a story about what happens when we/grow tired of/being afraid” and “I’m beginning to understand why, even in/sleep, all hospital parking lots remain full of hope.’ I find myself nodding in recognition, but new recognition with each surprising line. Winters is the real thing–spilling with talent. I look forward to all she will make and do in the future.

— Victoria Chang, author of Obit

Winters challenges the familiar narrative of the American dream and the immigrant experience—’America says I am disappointed in you & I say join the damn club.’ So, Stranger is a close study on departure and arrival, to and from countries, bodies, and loves.

— Diannely Antigua, author of Ugly Music

I entered this book wanting to find a world and Winters gave me dozens. Each poem is so full it feels like its own planet.

— Paige Lewis, author of Space Struck

In the beginning, science tells us, the four fundamental forces of the universe were one—a single force encompassing all possible energies. Reading Topaz Winters’ poems, I was reminded of this fact—in her work, heritage and politics, intelligence and ardor fuse in an intensity both incandescent and compelling. Sparks fly, while a human hand reaches for another. A dazzling and a deeply moving collection.

— Monica Youn, author of Blackacre

About Topaz Winters

Topaz Winters is the Singaporean-American author of So, Stranger (Button Poetry 2022) & Portrait of My Body as a Crime I’m Still Committing (Button Poetry 2019 & 2024). She serves as editor-in-chief of Half Mystic Press, an independent, international, & interdisciplinary publishing… MORE

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