We are pleased to announce that Chen Chen's A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize-winning collection, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, is the April pick for The Rumpus Poetry Book Club!

In an essay about why he chose the book, Poetry Editor Brian Spears says, "I am drawn to poetry about the difficulties of family, about the pain of feeling one is a disappointment to their parents, about the sense of separation that can come as a result. Chen Chen’s debut collection is filled with work which explores this universe. This is tricky subject matter to tackle, because it lends itself to both rant and cloying sentimentality and it’s easy (I know from experience) to have them go sideways like a car on ice. . . . The result of Chen Chen’s unique take is that many of the poems in this book show how joy and pain, far from being opposites, coexist and even exist symbiotically."

Calling some of the poems "pure joy," Spears says, "There’s much more within this book’s pages, and I’m looking forward to talking about it both with our Poetry Book Club members and with Chen Chen during our exclusive members-only online chat at the end of the month."

The Rumpus Poetry Book Club features a different forthcoming poetry book, not yet available to the public, every month. At the end of the month, it hosts an exclusive online discussion with the book club and the author. According to the coordinators, "We’re going to try to only read good books. Of course, all creative writing is subjective. But if we choose a poetry book it’s because we believe it’s really good. We’ll often have to choose between several really good poetry books, but there’s no way around that." Click here to join the Poetry Book Club and have new books of poetry delivered to your doorstep every month!

For more information on When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, visit the BOA Bookstore.