HOT, SOUR, SALTY, SWEET

A poet and creative writing professor gathers a cross-genre, cooking-inspired collection of her writing from the last 30 years.

Atlanta native and food lover Su, author of Peach State and Living Quarters, selected these essays to represent “the conversational, ‘prose’ side of my body of work so far,” offering valuable context to her poetry and life. In the first of five sections, the author explores the impact of her Asian heritage. In the wider context of her Southern upbringing, it helped to inform the enthusiastically “omnivorous” cultural and culinary sensibility that embraced mashed potatoes alongside her Chinese parents’ beloved Fuzhou-style cuisine. She also pays tribute to the love of cooking that in an “alternate universe” might have led to a career as a food writer. Indeed, later essays, particularly those in the fourth section, “Sustenance, Culinary and Literary,” reveal how cooking and food still influence her perception of her work. The order suggested by poetic forms like the sonnet, for example, inevitably reminds Su of the order she seeks in her kitchen and especially her cooking. In the essay “You Are What You Read,” she suggests that the children’s books people “consume” can produce stereotypical thinking about race and ethnicity. Su’s wide-ranging interests as a writer unafraid of mingling flavors are evident throughout the book. While many of the pieces are personal, some celebrate mentors or beloved poet-friends or engage in critical analysis of poetry by such poets as Su’s former classmate Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan. Still others take the form of interviews Su has done with a variety of publications, including the New England Review and the Best American Poetry blog. Seasoned with a dash of her meticulously crafted poetry and even a recipe, this collection celebrates words, culture, food, and the human act of making that binds them all together.

A literary gourmand’s delight.