homily is a poetry manuscript that I'm submitting for publication. other people have called it an epic poem that traces the history of love and desire across borders and time; a modern day twist on classical epic poetry with original and striking versification. Part queer epic; part experimental, time-bending travelogue; It details an evolving queer relationship/kinship through time and space, across borders and languages. Chen’s use of the page as a kind of map or canvas creates a unique and liberatory reading experience more akin to divination than reading... recalling Gilgamesh, H.D.’s Helen in Egypt, Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, Alice Notley’s Descent of Alette, and the book-length projects of Tommy Pico, but Chen’s book is all their own. I’ve never read anything quite like it. it won a university creative writing prize.

if this is interesting to you, please get in touch —