Replica

Reviews / Votes

"Low's debut collection is one of reflection, interrogation, and clarity. . . . A surprising and tremendous work." - (Booklist (starred review))

"An electric debut. . . . With incredible wit, charm, and raw emotion, Low redefines the possibilities around thinking and writing about identity and the power of representing oneself in the world. . . . An utter delight from start to finish." - (Chicago Review of Books)

"Many writers of color can relate to the paranoia that comes with having to speak for an entire race. . . . Low's writing prompts us to wonder what else we might put our creative energies toward were we not made to explain our every move in order to render ourselves legible. . . . A book of reconciliations: between who society expects us to be and who we are; between what our love looks like to others and what it really is; between the need to justify our existence and letting our defiance speak for itself." - (Tone Madison)

"Low articulates layers of inside, outside, around and through with smart and sly lyrics. . . . An assemblage of sharp, subtle and self-aware lines, the poems of Replica hold intriguing rhythms; lines that thrust and parry, dodge; a lightness that neither denies nor refuses their weight. She explores form, yet manages to not be constrained by those forms, each new exploration an opening into further possibility." - Rob Mclennan

"The core questions of Replica-around power and proximity, interracial relationships and white guilt, and mental health-'sing in the darkness' in poems that quite literally take up space, that flood the whiteness of the page." - Chet'la Sebree

"Replica is a lyrical reckoning. Low unravels complex layers of selfhood through hybrid prose poems, ars poeticas, and odes, and goes all in-rattling whiteness with necessary directness." - Jane Wong

"A haunting study in self-portraiture. Low's wry, winning humor mixes with her unsparing poignancy, bidding us to see each other, and ourselves, better." - Philip Metres