Angry, loving, lost, growth, reconcilement- some of the words I would use to associate to these works.

Each poem is hard hitting and written with such clever choice and use of each word. It speaks from the soul, from suffering and abandonment; from loss and exile.

Very lyrical- I loved to see the yuzana form of two Burmese poetical forms (than-bauk and ya-du) and the explanation of how it worked and where the word yuzana derives from. To go back and see how this was deployed in the works was much appreciated.

Yet another book released to me by publishers GaudyBoy through NetGalley, and another favourite on the list. Thank you for this copy, I am looking forward to reading more from this publisher and author.

I hadn’t heard anything about this author before, and honestly, this cover isn’t my favourite. That being said, the Mandy Moe Pwint Tu is amazing. She does tell us fables; but they also capture loss and grief and the anxiety of being away from a troubled land, and from the troubled ones we love.

To paraphrase a much better writer, if I liked this book less, I might be able to talk about it more!

I hope this book and writer aren’t slept upon because this collection was amazing!

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this!

This poetry collection by Mandy Moe Pwint Tu stems from her lined experience of the Myanmar military coup in 2021, the national response and the impact on her family.

Everyday observations; the mundane, the whimsical, and the yearning is all captured in the words of her Mother, her Father. There is a sad beauty to Tus' fables, almost like residual rain without a rainbow.

Some Standouts such as "Monsoon daughter tries narrative therapy" have such a aching quality about them, it's familiar but also not at the same time. "Confessions" detail the white lies we tell our parents so they don't become upset.

Lingering lines
"Wounds that close are those that matter"

"I teach her Trauma, trace the letters on her palm. No she said, that's just life"

"If they are cruel, we will be crueler"

"If the hyphen between the words could halve the burden of a balancing act. If a stretch of ink could denote the kind of wholeness I crave"

This was not the typical poetry collection; it's the perfect blend of narrative, lyrical poetry.

I adored this collection. I was constantly blown away by the language, insights and imagery. These poems have a mythic quality to them which I absolutely loved. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early review copy.

From the very first line I was hooked. I knew I was about to read a tight, artistic, profound collection. Sure as hell, I'm absolutely obliterated by the line "Ever time I crack an egg I think of skulls." Like what the fuck is that? How is it so simple and so great and so... I don't know-- and that I don't know feeling is poetry to me. It passes that Wislawa szymborska test for me-- "Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,
then labor heavily so that they may seem light." Because this collection feels so light that I know how heavy the labor must have been. Good shit.

One day, I hope a review on a dust jacket reads "Good shit."- Hannah

Thanks for the ARC.

Fablemaker by Mandy Moe Pwint Tu is a superb poetry collection reflecting upon the speaker's relationship with their father and their home country. Through the motif of 'Dear Fablemaker' poems, Tu explores the impact a violent and then absent father has on a child, and in turn how this stands as a metaphor for the turmoil experienced by Burma, then Myanmar. If we consider the speaker's home country as a 'fatherland', we see how the speaker's relationship to the self, identity and others is impacted by the speaker's father as he battles himself, alcoholism and, later, Covid-19, all while the place they yearn to call home is irrevocably changed by political upheaval and state violence. And what makes Fablemaker so brilliant is how this raw and gritty subject matter is woven through with sensory and figurative language - there is a softness of rain, water and air that pervades all of the hurt; - suggesting that love and hope still remain even in the face of immense loss and grief.

An aptly-titled, beautiful, lyric blend of myth-like poetry, personal history, and Myanmar's trauma.