Thousand Star Hotel

"Bao Phi’s poetry collection ambitiously meditates on loss, on police brutality and on how Phi, who fled Vietnam in an airplane while the Viet Cong bombed the airport, has constructed a sense of identity he’s now attempting to share with his young daughter Song. Phi, who also published a children’s book this year (A Different Pond) has a remarkable talent for bringing to life his experiences growing up poor and Asian in an urban environment."