Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. "There are so many paths thru the enchanted forest that is Eileen Tabios’ oeuvre that no one can possibly take them all in one lifetime. So it is
with something approaching glee that I find here a completely unexpected one: a mid- career ’selected’ constructed around her recurring use of the list / catalogue-form. Did I say the
list-form? No, pluralize that, and prepare to encounter an entire ecosystem of catalogues and lists. And don’t for a minute let this lead you to think that this is a book of ’weak
conceptualism’, not that there’s anything wrong with weakness (in the sense of an antifoundationalism), nor with conceptualism, because there’s not. Think rather that you are encountering
poetry, sans qualifiers; prepare to read; and (quoting Perec quoting Verne) ’Look with all your eyes, look’. This is the real stuff."—John Bloomberg- Rissman
