Review (PDF)

Islanders

A blend of fact, fiction, politics, and intimacy this poetry book chronicles a forgotten episode in American history and prefigure today's immigration debates. Between 1910 and 1940, Chinese immigrants to America were detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in the San Francisco Bay. As they waited for weeks and months to know if they could land, some of the detainees wrote poems on the walls. All the poems on record were found in the men's barracks; the women's quarters were destroyed by a fire. The collection imagines the lost voices of the detained women, while also telling the stories of their families on shore, the staff at Angel Island, and the 1877 San Francisco Chinatown Riot.

Paperback: 90 pages

Publisher: Conundrum Press (July 12, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1942280319

ISBN-13: 978-1942280316

Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.3 x 9.5 inches

Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Best Sellers Rank: #1,525,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #158 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > Asian > Chinese #1112 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Women Authors

Islanders is a beautiful and remarkable collection, as important for the stories it tells as for the restrained and resonant way in which it tells them. Goh brings a little known piece of American history vividly to life and reminds us of how relevant this history is to our modern day experience of living in a world where people cross national boundaries every day in their search for a better life.

Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People: Volume One: From Aboriginal Times to the End of Slavery Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People: Volume Two: From the Ending of Slavery to the Twenty-First Century Islands, Islanders and the World: The Colonial and Post-colonial Experience of Eastern Fiji (Cambridge Human Geography) Day of Two Suns: U.S. Nuclear Testing and the Pacific Islanders Day of Two Suns: United States Nuclear Testing and the Pacific Islanders Islanders