Like all good poets, Quan can photograph a moment using words. Quan is Vancouver born of Chinese descent, but explores gay sexuality and has also clearly done a great deal of travelling, firing off poems from Berlin or London with poetic observations that can’t help but be cultural explorations as well. In fact, one of the joys of reading the book is that so much falls out of it.

Wong’s Children,” which concludes:īut the poems in Slant cover such a diverse range of topics, and all with enough careful crafting, empathy and expressive language, that it becomes impossible to close the book believing in one interpretation of the title. The poems in Slant, by Andy Quan, make occasional references to race, such as in “Mr. – John Barton Reviews The Danforth Review – Alex Boyd.Ī lovely review of Slant, full of praise in a stylish, smart Canadian-based literary review on the net.) The last word of one of this first book’s finest poems most aptly describes its import: Slant launches the career of a poet whose trajectory is assured ‘glitter.'” And whether these connections are made by air, over coffee, or on the dance floor, Quan tunes them in language that is empathic and direct. “Andy Quan plumbs the delicate inevitability of connection between child and parent, siblings and extended family, between men as lovers and as friends, between insiders and outsiders, across cultures, continents and generations. “Andy Quan belongs to that species of poet who remembers home and family but travels everywhere to make discoveries that deepen his insights into himself.”

The poetry journeys through a range of places and cultures, always welcoming ‘ceremony, extinction, discovery, new life’ (‘Flight Ice Blood Metal’). A third-generation Chinese Canadian, Slant explores the experience of the Chinese diaspora. Nightwood Editions offers four new collections: Billie Livingston’s The Chick at the Back of the Church, Andy Quan’s Slant, Jay Ruzesky’s Blue Himalayan Poppies, and Norm Sacuta’s Garments of the Known… Andy Quan is also a writer of fiction, as well as a singer and songwriter, and Slant is his first book of poems. University of Toronto Quarterly (Volume 72 Number 1, Winter 2002/3) announced Slant as such:

Slant asks “how do we belong?” and answers in a voice that is compelling and unique.

The collection alternates between three main themes of childhood and family in the Chinese diaspora gay sexuality, community and rites-of-passage and voyages literal and metaphorical. Sharp, accessible and witty, Slant offers a fresh exploration of issues of race, sexuality, and life in the global village.

Calendar Boy by Andy Quan