Self-Portraits Ex Machina by Devi S. Laskar

 

In this dazzling and potent collection, Devi S. Laskar fuses memory with rage, turning hunger into vengeance, carving form into beauty as well as tragedy. These poems render personal history as haunting revelations of body, mind, and spirit, carrying urgent messages that demand to be heard.

 

 

Devi S. Laskar‘s luminescent Self-Portraits Ex Machina is a feast in the physical and spiritual sense. Laskar allows her readers to embark on a poetic voyage complete with intellectual meditations on English syntax, observations on victuals offered at vacation Bible camps, and honest recollections of the perils of intergenerational recipe translation. Masterfully injecting nuance into every verse, Laskar’s poems transcend bodily experiences and cultural divides, drawing on myriad previously established traditions—whether retelling ancient Greek myths or satirizing whitewashed country music. Self-Portraits also encourages a higher level of engagement from its readers, boasting interactive poems in the style of both Mad Libs and bricolage chaotically coordinating popular newspaper headlines. The result is a singularly immersive literary adventure, one that asks much of its readers, and delivers even more. In the world she weaves, tapestries of cultural critique and personal outlook deliver a collection that demands lingering with one’s own biases while simultaneously facilitating the abolishment of the boundaries that enable them. 

—Ewa Chrusciel, the author of Yours, Purple Gallinule and three other books.