{"product_id":"perennial-counterpart","title":"Perennial Counterpart","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNamed one of Literary Hub's \"Most Anticipated Books of 2026\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA poetic study in magical modes of connection over distance—how both friendship and reading are similar ways of being together while being alone.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten over several years of solitude, study, and transformation, the poems in \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePerennial Counterpart\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e trace an evolving, self-questioning practice of thinking-in-poetry where long, reflective lines—evoking both prose and photography—brush against elliptical, fractured modes of film and literary criticism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnchored by the author’s obsessive reading life, this is a book where lyric inquiry becomes its own form of company. Here, the poem is written to remake its writer through glittering connections to a personal lineage of thought.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Chen's crystalline debut explores memory, nostalgia, and identity in poems that jump-cut between locations Barcelona, Berlin, Ithaca, New York City...Readers will savor this strong and cerebral study of selfhood.'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Are these poems, or exploding postcards dispatched from the land of dreams? Yongyu Chen's exquisite \u003cem\u003ePerennial Counterpart\u003c\/em\u003e balances conceptual density with a yearning lyricism: always strange, \"unintelligible to the end,\" but intelligible to those who speak the language of rain and flowers. A monumental debut.' \u003c\/b\u003eJackie Wang\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'To be with \u003cem\u003ePerennial Counterpart\u003c\/em\u003e is to \"river around\" the intimate folds of its letters, lovers, loved ones, literary souls. Like the strange \"fur that grows on a crystal,\" Yongyu Chen's probing language turns mixture into a beguiling poetics of friendship, a reverie for a more elemental and rejuvenated address to our unsettled world.' \u003c\/b\u003eJay Gao\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'What a gift it is to climb into each of Yongyu Chen's rapturous, cinematic, philosophical lines, and find myself in a world that so much and so many insist cannot be...A generous, exquisite debut.' \u003c\/b\u003eTracy K. Smith\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Yongyu Chen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54063880339735,"sku":"9781643623108","price":29.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0818\/9132\/8279\/files\/9781643623108.jpg?v=1784253852","url":"https:\/\/amplifybookstore.com\/products\/perennial-counterpart","provider":"Amplify Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}