OBIT

OBIT is a poetry collection composed primarily of obituary-style prose poems, written in the aftermath of Victoria Chang's mother's death and her father's stroke. Each piece begins with a short newspaper-style heading announcing the "death" of various concepts, relationships, and aspects of life. The poems take the formal constraints of obituary writing and transform them into vehicles for processing grief, memory, and loss. Chang uses this structure to examine both personal tragedy and broader human experiences of mortality. The collection incorporates visual elements through a series of tankas written in vertical lines that appear like black pillars on the page. These sections create a visual and thematic counterpoint to the prose-style obituaries that make up the majority of the work. The work explores how death affects not just people but also abstract concepts like language, memory, and time itself, suggesting that grief has the power to alter our fundamental relationships with everyday realities.

Readers connect deeply with Chang's portrayal of grief and loss through the lens of newspaper obituaries. The experimental format resonates with those processing their own experiences of death and aging. Likes: - Innovative structure that mirrors the fragmentary nature of mourning - Raw emotional impact without sentimentality - Precise language and imagery - Effective use of white space and form Dislikes: - Some find the obituary format repetitive - A few readers note difficulty connecting with the more abstract pieces - Several mention needing breaks due to emotional intensity Ratings: Goodreads: 4.3/5 (1,200+ ratings) Amazon: 4.6/5 (150+ ratings) Reader quotes: "These poems punch you in the gut then teach you how to breathe again" - Goodreads review "The obituary format could feel gimmicky but instead creates a powerful framework" - Amazon review "Had to put it down several times to process the weight of loss" - StoryGraph review

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🖋️ "OBIT" was inspired by Victoria Chang's experience of writing her mother's obituary in 2015, leading her to write poetic obituaries for everything she lost, from her mother's voice to her family's blue house 📝 The poems in the collection are formatted to resemble newspaper obituaries, complete with precise dates and times of death, creating a unique visual experience on the page 🏆 The book won multiple prestigious awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection 💫 Chang wrote most of the book's poems in a single month, during an intense period of grief and creativity following her parents' illnesses 🌟 The collection includes a 70-line poem written entirely without punctuation, resembling the way grief can feel like one continuous, unbroken moment