Water Guest (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780299352646)

Lake Tahoe: home of the Washoe Tribe, a shining blue jewel that crowns the Sierra Nevada, and a beloved American vacation destination made accessible by the transcontinental railroad built largely by Chinese laborers. This gorgeous location forms the site from which Caroline M. Mar's stunning collection, Water Guest, attempts to reconcile issues of identity, ownership, and place. The poems wander through Mar's attempts to locate herself geographically, genealogically, and etymologically. A direct ancestor was a railroad laborer; is that why her love for the land feels older than herself? Or is it the siren call of the deep, clear water?

Raising questions of inheritance, the conundrum of land ownership, and the violence of history, Mar gives voice to the lost writing of Chinese laborers and silent communion to those of us still here--immigrant and Indigenous, settler and resister. This beautiful collection finds acceptance, if not resolution, through the questions themselves.

Author: Caroline M. Mar
ISBN-10: 0299352641
ISBN-13: 9780299352646
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Language: English
Published: 04/01/2025
Pages: 108
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs