Description

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A collection of poems that blesses the reader with a spirit of hope, solace, and inspiration in their own seasons of adversity.

The Beautiful Immunity asks how we create good in an imperfect world of fallible souls. Spare and formally daring, these poems were refined through the catastrophes of wildfires, recession, and a major public health crisis through the hope of a beautiful immunity—an everlasting salve for the lost. This slender volume reads as the culmination of more than a decade’s worth of labor, documenting large-scale social, cultural, and political upheavals, as well as the moment when the word “anthropause” floated indelibly into the world’s vocabulary.
 

About the Author

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Karen An-hwei Lee is the author of Duress, Rose is a Verb: Neo-Georgics, In Medias Res (winner of the Norma Farber First Book Award), and Phyla of Joy and Ardor, both also published by Tupelo Press. She authored two novels, Sonata in K and The Maze of Transparencies. Lee’s translations of Li Qingzhao’s writing, Doubled Radiance: Poetry & Prose of Li Qingzhao, comprise the first volume in English to collect Li’s work in both genres. Her book of literary criticism, Anglophone Literatures in the Asian Diaspora: Literary Transnationalism and Translingual Migrations, was selected for the Cambria Sinophone World Series. Lee currently lives in greater Chicago.

Praise For…

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“In this ringing and consummate work, Lee reconnects us with Christianity’s foundations as a resistance movement. In line with thinkers such as Leo Tolstoy and Martin Luther King Jr., she foregrounds its commitments to non-violent civic activism, radical inclusion, and the relentless pursuit of peace, which connect it to so many other faith systems across the globe that are similarly dedicated to enabling hope to overcome greed. She then turns this lens on today’s crucial issues, particularly climate change and its explosive effects, demonstrating that adamant hope can translate into vigorous action through language applied in the most incisive and persuasive ways.”
— Cole Swensen

“I've often wondered if the enthusiasm of Blake or the humility of George Herbert could possibly have survived the coarse depredations of this 21st century. Thanks to the poems of Karen An-Hwei Lee, I wonder no more. All shall be well. In The Beautiful Immunity, ecstasy never fails to defy deprivation. Desire never yields to despondency. One blossom, one syllable or simply a taste of spice on the tongue can prompt a beautiful vastation and an honest prayer. There is every possibility of greatness in this book. There are wings on these words.”
— Donald Revell