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Bright Sorrow

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Bright Sorrow

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  • Praise
  • About the Author

  • the bright sorrow is always ringing, always ringing, and fading into forgetting

    In his second book, Jonathan Chan presents poems written through the years of the pandemic and eruptions of war and strife.

    Each circles the notion of ‘bright sorrow’, a spiritual state characterised by a profound mingling of joy and grief. These poems look to repentance, to suffering, and to the contradiction of extremities, each glistening at their core.

  • “Jonathan Chan’s poems are distinctively musical, acutely observed, and existentially engaged at the deepest level. They are bracing to discover.”
    —Christian Wiman, Poet and author of Zero at the Bone and Survival Is a Style

    “Jonathan Chan is a poet simultaneously (miraculously!) of the body and of the spirit – the prayerful body, the aching and singing spirit
. As with the great C.P. Cavafy, personal scenes turn into mythic landscapes, and ancient tales become an afternoon’s meal. Chan’s poems are at once feast and plea, story and ruin, sorrow, sorrow, and piercing joy.”
    —Chen Chen, Poet and author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

  • Jonathan Chan is a writer, editor, and translator of poems and essays. His first collection of poems, going home (Landmark, 2022), was a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2024. His second collection of poems is bright sorrow (Landmark, 2025).

    He serves as Managing Editor of the poetry archive poetry.sg, Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, & Essays Editor at Journal of Practice, Research & Tangential Activities (PR&TA), and Reading Board Member at The Plentitudes. He also serves on the English Subcommittee of Poetry Festival Singapore, where he was an Editor-in-Chief for the Singapore Literature Conference Monograph 2021 and 2023: Selected Proceedings.

$23.85
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$23.85

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Description

  • Description
  • Praise
  • About the Author

  • the bright sorrow is always ringing, always ringing, and fading into forgetting

    In his second book, Jonathan Chan presents poems written through the years of the pandemic and eruptions of war and strife.

    Each circles the notion of ‘bright sorrow’, a spiritual state characterised by a profound mingling of joy and grief. These poems look to repentance, to suffering, and to the contradiction of extremities, each glistening at their core.

  • “Jonathan Chan’s poems are distinctively musical, acutely observed, and existentially engaged at the deepest level. They are bracing to discover.”
    —Christian Wiman, Poet and author of Zero at the Bone and Survival Is a Style

    “Jonathan Chan is a poet simultaneously (miraculously!) of the body and of the spirit – the prayerful body, the aching and singing spirit
. As with the great C.P. Cavafy, personal scenes turn into mythic landscapes, and ancient tales become an afternoon’s meal. Chan’s poems are at once feast and plea, story and ruin, sorrow, sorrow, and piercing joy.”
    —Chen Chen, Poet and author of Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency

  • Jonathan Chan is a writer, editor, and translator of poems and essays. His first collection of poems, going home (Landmark, 2022), was a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2024. His second collection of poems is bright sorrow (Landmark, 2025).

    He serves as Managing Editor of the poetry archive poetry.sg, Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, & Essays Editor at Journal of Practice, Research & Tangential Activities (PR&TA), and Reading Board Member at The Plentitudes. He also serves on the English Subcommittee of Poetry Festival Singapore, where he was an Editor-in-Chief for the Singapore Literature Conference Monograph 2021 and 2023: Selected Proceedings.

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