Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flèche | 2019 | Mary Jean Chan | Buy |
| 2 | Bright Fear | 2023 | Mary Jean Chan | Buy |
Mary Jean Chan is a Hong Kong-born poet who won the 2019 Costa Book Award for Poetry with their debut collection Fleche. The title is a fencing term for an offensive technique, drawn from Chan’s experience competing as a fencer for Hong Kong. The word also works as a pun on “flesh,” and the collection explores the tension between vulnerability and strength.
Fleche was published by Faber and Faber in 2019 and was selected as a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Central to the collection is the figure of the poet’s mother, whose fragmented memories of political turmoil in twentieth-century China run through the book in an eight-part sequence. Bright Fear followed in 2023 as Chan’s second full collection, continuing to explore themes of identity, queerness, and cross-cultural experience.