The Last to the Party by Chuqiao Yang

What is this gift of finally belonging,
if not returning the tender smile back
to those faded faces
who were quietly waiting for you
to see them as they always were
for the very first time?

Chuqiao Yang’s first full-length poetry collection, The Last to the Party, is a beautiful bridge into the past, examined in the frank light of the present. Arriving at “The Party” (“… half a self, mostly angry, and still my father adored me“) and ending with a voyage on “The Road Home” (“… I am earning the forgiveness I deserve/ as I continue to say hello and goodbye, to enough people to fill the ocean of my life…”), the five sections of selections that make up her debut explore the connections we make along our journey and how they continue to affect us long after they become memories.

Indeed, this is a book about bridges: Between cultures as a child of Asian immigrants to the Canadian Prairies; between the different spaces we visit or inhabit in order to learn more about ourselves; between the familiar weight of parental expectations and the opposite path that ultimately fits like a glove. It juxtaposes reminiscences of innocence with youthful rebellion against an older way of knowing, and with the starker realities we now realize as adults looking back and understanding more of the layers that make up the self.

...We may never meet again, but I sometimes 
greet your memory at the end of a night.

What I particularly liked about Yang’s work is that her words are both earnest and poignant. And because of this combination, she invites the reader into introspection of the meanings that we derive from our own pasts; certainly, I was left reflecting on a few of my own relationships after reading a particular stanza. (One that stood out to me in particular, in reference to a father-daughter relationship that was “a bit codependent“: “…know I have never stopped / netting the sky to find you a reason to be happy.” How simply stunning.)

A beautifully bittersweet ode to the many layers that compound over time to make up ourselves.

Her ability to share anecdotes through poetry allow the reader to situate themselves in the space and then excavate deep meaning from seemingly everyday recollections. Overall, I found the collection of poems that Yang has chosen to share with us a beautifully bittersweet ode to the many layers that compound over time to make up ourselves.

Or, perhaps better left said in her own words: “Her art was intercourse … Her art was praying … Her art was pleasure.“

Chuqiao Yang‘s poems have appeared in The Unpublished City, Ricepaper, Arc Poetry Magazine, Canthius, Prism, Grain, CV2, Room, and on CBC Radio. She was a finalist for the Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers and her chapbook, Reunions in the Year of the Sheep, won the bpNichol Chapbook Award. The Last to the Party is her first full-length collection. Yang lives in Ottawa.

Publisher: Goose Lane Editions / Icehouse poetry (April 2, 2024)
Paperback 8.5″ x 5.5″ | 108 pages
ISBN: 9781773103334

Bryn Robinson

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Bryn Robinson lives in Quispamsis, NB, although she still, and always will, consider herself a Saint Johner. She uses her BA in psychology and French, and her PhD in experimental psychology, from the University of New Brunswick, to help her support health research in the province. She prefers contemporary fiction, narrative non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry - and if they are humorous, all the better. When not reading, she's exploring the New Brunswick forests and seascapes, camera in hand.