Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

Chen Chen was born in 1989 in Xiamen, China, and "grew up" in Massachusetts in the US. His first book-length collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, US, 2017; Bloodaxe Books, UK, 2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) New Writers Award, the Texas Book Award for Poetry, and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The book was also a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and named a Stonewall Honor Book. He had previously published two chapbooks, Kissing the Sphinx (Two of Cups Press, 2016) and Set the Garden on Fire (Porkbelly Press, 2015). His work has been widely acclaimed in the US, with Poets & Writers Magazine featuring him in their Inspiration Issue as one of ‘Ten Poets Who Will Change the World’. His second collection, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is publshed by Bloodaxe Books in the UK and BOA Editions in the US in 2022.He earned his BA from Hampshire College and his MFA from Syracuse University, where he was a University Fellow, and is currently working on a PhD in English and Creative Writing through Texas Tech University as an off-site student and the recipient of a J.T. and Margaret Talkington Fellowship. He edits Underblong with the poet Sam Herschel Wein and serves as a contributing editor for Bettering American Poetry. Chen lives in frequently snowy Rochester, NY, with his partner, Jeff Gilbert and their pug dog, Mr Rupert Giles. He was the 2018-2020 Jacob Ziskind Poet-in-Residence at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Chen Chen refuses to be boxed in or nailed down. He is a poet of Whitman’s multitudes and of Langston Hughes’ blues, of Dickinson’s "so cold no fire can warm me" and of Michael Palmer’s comic interrogation. What unifies the brilliance of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities is a voice desperate to believe that within every one of life’s sadnesses there is also hope, meaning, and – if we are willing to laugh at ourselves – humor. This is a book I wish existed when I first began reading poetry. Chen is a poet I’ll be reading for the rest of my life.

• IA Favorite Room 13Summer [I have a...] 14Doctor’s Note 15Higher Education 16Summer [You are the...] 17The School of Australia 18Items May Have Shifted 20The School of Morning & Letters 23The School of Fury 25Winter [The grackles flap...] 27The School of Your Book / Letter to Jennifer S. Cheng 29Study Abroad 31we’ll be gone after these brief messages 33IIWinter [Big smelly bowel...] 37The School of Red 39a small book of questions: chapter i 40The School of More School 44& then a student stands up, says, Are you serious? 45a small book of questions: chapter ii 47Winter [You become increasingly...] 49Elegy While Listening to a Song I Can’t Help ButStart to Move to 50a small book of questions: chapter iii 53a small book of questions: chapter iv 54a small book of questions: chapter v 56One Year Later: A Letter 57Summer [Your emergency contact...] 61a small book of questions: chapter vi 62a small book of questions: chapter vii 65The School of Logic 67The School of a Few or a Lot of My Favorite Things 69a small book of questions: chapter viii 72IIIOrigin Story 75Winter [It’s April. But...] 77In the World’s Italianest Restaurant 82Summer [The sunflowers fall...] 85Things the Grackles Bring 89After My White Friend Says So CoolUpon Hearing Me Speak Chinese... 90Every Poem Is My Most Asian Poem 91I am reminded via email to resubmit my preferencesfor the schedule 92four short essays personifying a future in whichwhite supremacy has ended 95Chen No Middle Name Chen 98The School of Song, Uno, & Dinnertime 99One Year Later: Her Answer 102The School of Keyboards & Our Whole Entire HistoryUp to the Present 103Autumn 106IVI Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party 111ode to my beloveds & brevities 113我疼你 115The School of Night & Hyphens 119Ode to Rereading Rimbaud in Lubbock, Texas 120The School of You 122Zombie Kindnesses 125Lunar New Year 127Spring 128The School of Eternities 129Spring Summer Autumn Winter 134The School of the Unschoolable 136The School of Joy / Letter to Michelle Lin 138*Notes 144Acknowledgments 145