National Poetry Month: Christina Sng
Created by Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian
Christina Sng is our contemporary poet for today.
Sng’s first full-length poetry collection was "A Collection of Nightmares." This book won the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Best Poetry Collection. Author Gabino Iglesias wrote that it "is poignant and disturbing, beautifully written and wildly ranging in subject matter and execution, horrific and wonderfully atmospheric. If a large chunk of contemporary poetry pushes me back into the comforting arms of novels, this collection violently pushed me to seek out more of Sng’s work, and that’s one hell of an achievement."
Sng followed this up in 2020 with "A Collection of Dreamscapes." This one also won the Stoker Award for Best Poetry Collection. Poet Sara Tantlinger said of this collection: "One of the many things that draws me into Sng’s poetry is how expertly she shapes each piece. This is a poet who takes her craft seriously, who understands the work that goes into revising, editing, and revising a piece again until it is perfect, until each word of the poem lures you deep into its lullaby and in this collection of magic and light, of darkness and blood, you’ll find yourself held captured by those lullabies until they turn into screams."
"The Gravity of Existence" is Sng's most recent collection, published in 2022. It was a finalist for the Stoker Award for Best Poetry Collection. From the publisher's description: "'The Gravity of Existence' is a weight lifted, a monster freed, a princess with sneakers, a spell for a better world. From one of the leading voices in dark verse, this collection delights in the misunderstood, putting a new spin on werewolves, basilisks, sirens, ghosts, aliens, pandemics, fairy tales and myths. Sng gives new voice to classic heroines and the result is terrifying, magical, and fantastic."
If you’re interested in horror poetry, or just in beautifully-written poems, give Sng a read!
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