Tree of Knowledge

Poems

by Victoria Chang

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Pub Date Jul 07 2026 | Archive Date Aug 07 2026

Description

A poet watches the limbs of a eucalyptus tree get sawed off: the image persists, refracting and recurring across poems of art, language, selfhood, memory, and loss.

Joan Mitchell said, When I talk about love, I mean loving a tree. When I talk about love, I mean loving where a tree used to be.

Men assess the eucalyptus tree growing on the poet’s street; a crane arrives. The sound of a chainsaw rings in the air and branches begin to fall. This tree-cutting haunts the poet and becomes the locus from which the rest of the collection spirals. It refracts across works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, and Hilma af Klint, whose painting series lends the collection its title and who becomes a model for engaging with the world. At the core of the collection, the long poem “Eureka” examines the violent 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from the eponymous California town. Roving, evocative, and intricate, Tree of Knowledge is rooted in Victoria Chang’s crystalline voice and generous, probing gaze, and by certain images —trees, a hanging figure, a branch, fingertips, a briefcase—that resurface like apparitions.

A Note From the Publisher

Victoria Chang has written several books of poetry, including With My Back to the World and The Trees Witness Everything, and a nonfiction book, Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief. Her poetry collection OBIT was named a New York Times Notable Book; received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the PEN/Voelcker Award; was long-listed for the National Book Award; and was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. With My Back to the World received the Forward Prize for Best Collection of Poetry and was short-listed for the PEN/Jean Stein Award, the California Book Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Award. Chang has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Chowdhury Prize in Literature. She is the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech and the director of Poetry@Tech.

Victoria Chang has written several books of poetry, including With My Back to the World and The Trees Witness Everything, and a nonfiction book, Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief...

Available Editions

EDITION	Other Format
ISBN	9780374614362
PRICE	$27.00 (USD)
PAGES	144

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Additional Information

Average rating from 11 members

Featured Reviews

Wendy W, Media/Journalist

I was blown away by this book. It consists mostly of ekphrastic poems and touches on themes of grief, parenting, lineage, intergenerational trauma, and midlife/menopause. What struck me is that as I was reading, each line felt completely fresh and surprising. I never knew where the poems were going to go and that truly took my breath away. The images and pathos in these poems are just so particular – imaginative, textured, evocative.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.

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Reviewer 1956431

Wow, this book blew me away! Victoria Chang’s poetry has a cyclical nature to it that draws you in deeper and deeper with each rotation. The way Chang can turn a single image into several vastly different poems is stunning. I particularly loved the artwork by the author, and if you also are an art lover, you will enjoy the references to paintings in many of her poems. Tree of Knowledge was a fantastic introduction to Chang’s work and I’m looking forward to picking up more of her poetry.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC!

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amanda r, Reviewer

Stunning new collection from Chang! So many layers in this: trees, lineage, art, family, grief, identity... Love the collage images worked throughout. Definitely one to add to your collection to teach from.

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Archer C, Reviewer

This collection has cemented Victoria Chang as one of my favorite poets. Her words spread like roots and branches through these pages, weaving and connecting and creating life. These poems were rich and layered, with references to artists and artwork spread like fallen leaves throughout. Some poems were contemplative, others determined; Chang explored death, life, things lost and found; but the thread tying them all so intricately together was the art of experience---having it, cultivating it, sharing it.

This style of poetry is not for every reader, and was very different to the other collection I've read from her (OBIT). There were many abstract and winding ideas that required careful rumination; this was a collection where many poems used language as canvas rather than paint (as Chang says, "The meaning of words gets in my way."). I relish this style of poetry and will be placing this collection among my most savored. I especially loved the final section, particularly My Landscape II, 1967; Tree of Knowledge, No. 7B; Tree of Knowledge, No. 7A; Fig. 15; Thanksgiving, 1965; Natural History Part I, Mushrooms; and The Reader.