Poems this nuanced and strong, wild and grave, seem to be written with a feather and a chisel. They are that delicate, that indelible.
Alice Fulton
(Ahsahta Press © 2012)
ISBN: 978-1934103258
Winner of the 2011 Sawtooth Poetry Prize, an SPD Books Bestseller, and named by The Volta as one of the best books of 2012 in its Friday Feature, Chinoiserie travels through centuries in poems that carve wonder from ruin, from an illuminated manuscript to New York on the eve of disaster, the Emperor’s nightingale to neon aquariums.
A sensory flight—intricate in its vision, Ecclesiastic in its hunger—this book of curiosities is inspired by 15th-century masters, film, anime, Marguerite Duras, and other sources.
In his judge’s citation, Paul Hoover writes, “Karen Rigby sees with feeling the magic of things shaped by language…But here also are the musical cadence, subject range, and ceremonial precision of true poetry…This is, quite simply, a gorgeous and powerful book.”
E-mail to query about purchasing a signed copy: 
Preview the table of contents.pdf
Dense, unpredictable images and beautifully unlikely sounds evoke not only a sensory universe but also a rigorous mind, on which nothing, from art or life, is lost.
Adrienne Su
Chinoiserie
“…her work is distinguished by the completeness of its sense — sharp as an animal’s — of the world at the page’s edge…”
Explore the Book
What I started to tell you / had something to do with hunger
- Writing ExercisesCreative prompts for workshops or individuals, inspired by the poetry collection Chinoiserie.
- Reading GuideChinoiserie means “the imitation or evocation of Chinese motifs and techniques in art, furniture, and architecture, especially in the 18th century.”
- PlumsFriars. Red beauties. Elephant hearts you could pare on your tongue, limbs darkening below the line.
- Orange/
PittsburghRobins pulse at their feeders— Chinese bottle gourds strung along the black elm. - Black RosesNone. Only burgundy or violet, scene you never imagine, fields burning with larvicide.
- Cebolla ChurchThe desert is a lion-colored seam. Not a finger of dust lines sills— not a spine or lizard scale.
Past
Events
1/
AWP Chicago Offsite
Ahsahta/Counterpath
3/1/12, 7:00 p.m.
Film Row Cinema
Columbia College
Chicago, Illinois
2/
AWP Book Signing
AWP Chicago
3/2/12, 2:00 p.m.
Ahsahta Press
Chicago, Illinois
3/
University of Minnesota
First Books Reading
4/22/12, 7:00 p.m.
Weisman Art Museum
Minneapolis, Minnesota
w/ Peter Geye, Arlene Kim & Paul Metsa
4/
Rice University
Cherry Reading Series
11/8/12, 7:00 p.m.
Brazos Bookstore
Houston, Texas
w/ Matt Hart
5/
Casa Libre
Edge 49: A Reading Series of Emerging and Younger Poets
11/28/12, 7:30 p.m.
Tucson, Arizona
w/ Annie Guthrie & Lisa Levine
7/
Poetry Center
The University of Arizona
Poetry Center
7/25/13, 7:00 p.m.
Tucson, Arizona
w/ Anne Shaw & Melissa Buckheit
9/
Poetics Research Bureau
951 Chung King Road
12/14/13, 7:45 p.m.
Los Angeles, California
w/ Sara Mumolo
10/
University of Arizona
Tucson Festival of Books
3/15/14, 4:00 p.m.
Tucson, Arizona
w/ Sharon Suzuki-Martinez
13/
Saint Vincent College
Saint Vincent College
Visiting Writers Series
3/16/15, 5:30 p.m.
Latrobe, Pennsylvania
14/
University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg
Written/Spoken Series
3/17/15, 7:00 p.m.
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
w/ Tessa Sarver