The Story
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 says in a prose poem that turns writing about identity on its head. She peers in from outside the poem, as if through an open ceiling. The poem itself becomes a site of investigation--a counterpoint to constricting narratives about Asian American identity--reimagined as a dollhouse, a stage with props, an image the speaker wears like a bodysuit. Replica asks what it means to represent yourself and your experiences in a world where you are indistinguishable from others.
Author: Lisa Low
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 03/24/2026
Pages: 96
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
ISBN: 9780299356545
Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/01/2026
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.
Description
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 says in a prose poem that turns writing about identity on its head. She peers in from outside the poem, as if through an open ceiling. The poem itself becomes a site of investigation--a counterpoint to constricting narratives about Asian American identity--reimagined as a dollhouse, a stage with props, an image the speaker wears like a bodysuit. Replica asks what it means to represent yourself and your experiences in a world where you are indistinguishable from others.
Author: Lisa Low
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 03/24/2026
Pages: 96
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
ISBN: 9780299356545
Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/01/2026
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.
