I Would Define the Sun
Vanderbilt University Press, February 2025.
Winner of the 2024 Vanderbilt University Literary Prize
"Stephanie Niu would define the sun. With her finger, she would draw a circle around your heart to define inside and outside, and then she would draw that circle bigger. And your heart grows. She would point to the world and say 'World,' and then she would draw an 'X' on your soul and say, 'Here,' to remind you of the best seat from which to view the world. Love and Death are her masters, and she is one of their brightest, most diligent disciples. We are blessed to have these poems."
——Li-Young Lee, author of The Invention of the Darling
"I Would Define the Sun offers both a realist and surrealist angle on its subjects: the depredations of climate change, consumerism, and the experience of living in two cultures: the Chinese one of her ancestry and the contemporary America she calls home. Niu has a sense of humor about the peculiarities of our age, and demonstrates an elegant sense of form in every poem."
—Dana Levin, author of Now Do You Know Where You Are
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Press Release: "I Would Define the Sun" wins Inaugural Vanderbilt University Literary Prize.