{"product_id":"how-to-cast-a-beautiful-diana-keren-lee-9781531514365","title":"How to Cast a Beautiful Animal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2024-2025 Poetic Justice Institute Editor's Prize, an Asian American actress's journey through landscape, language, and lineage\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow to Cast a Beautiful Animal \u003c\/i\u003eis Diana Keren Lee's debut full-length poetry collection. Witty, perceptive, and emotionally resonant, these poems accompany a struggling actress from childhood to middle age, from Texas to New York, Los Angeles, and South Korea, while tracing the lives of her working-class immigrant parents and the effects of displacement. Set against the backdrop of the 1980s, when Asian American performers were largely confined to outdated roles, through the present moment and into imagined futures, this book features the layered experience of a second-generation Korean American life that resists stereotype and easy narrative. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eHow to Cast a Beautiful Animal \u003c\/i\u003enavigates between stage and home, English and Korean, autobiography and invention. Lee examines the loss and recovery of language, the trauma of war and migration, and the shifting terrains of relationships, labor, and art. From the financial crises of the early twenty-first century to moments of joy and creative discovery, this collection balances sharp social observation with lyric intimacy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUsing a wide range of styles and forms, Lee moves beyond immigrant tragedy and the model minority myth to create a multifaceted portrait of family, American dream versus reality, humor, and resilience. With a lens both sweeping and precise, these poems consider the limits, and possibilities, of language while honoring lives and histories often relegated to the margins. \u003ci\u003eHow to Cast a Beautiful\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eAnimal \u003c\/i\u003emarks the arrival of a distinctive and compelling new voice in contemporary American poetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Diana Keren Lee\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1531514367\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781531514365\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Fordham University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 104\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.29lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 6.00w x 0.25d","brand":"Diana Keren Lee","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49001146024191,"sku":"9781531514365","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/how-to-cast-a-beautiful-diana-keren-lee-9781531514365","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}