{"product_id":"liu-warren-first-contpb","title":"Liu, Warren: First Contact","description":"\u003cp\u003eKaya Press, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: May 26, 2026\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublisher Marketing: \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA formally experimental and absurdist mock-epic poem that melds speculative fiction and travel writing\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSomething on the horizon inches toward the drunken villagers of Zonal Beach, but what--or who--could it be? In \u003ci\u003eFirst Contact\u003c\/i\u003e, Warren Liu presents a hilarious, polyphonic poem that narrates the agonizingly slow-motion progress of a first contact encounter between coastal natives and shipwrecked would-be colonizers. Liu's wry, humorous poetry uses three distinct voices to highlight the inherent farce of coming up against a world entirely different from one's own. Slipping between tropes of colonial myth-making and alien encounters, Liu animates the strange, slanted rhymes of history with a voracious wit and deft ear. Whether narrating the choral chatter of the bewildered villagers or a mystic's pop-culture-informed oracular visions or the epistolary reminiscences of a lost exile, Liu demonstrates again and again how colliding with a new culture always happens first as farce, then as farce once more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45118189174807,"sku":"9781935717263","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0004\/6497\/7956\/files\/61nfsza9WQL._SL1000.jpg?v=1778453775","url":"https:\/\/open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com\/products\/liu-warren-first-contpb","provider":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}