Phi, Bao: Thousand Star Hotel

Coffee House Press, paperback

Publication Date: July 04, 2017

Publisher Marketing:

Poems from a father, a refugee, an activist resisting the invisibility of the Asian American urban poor.

Thousand Star Hotel confronts the silence around racism, police brutality, and the invisibility of the Asian American urban poor.

"[Phi's] irreverent profundity shines in prose poems and fixed forms alike." --The New York Times Book Review

"The strength of this book comes from the clear and forceful voice. The words leap off the pages, half alive already. . . . A fierce, burning indictment of racism and xenophobia." --Chicago Review of Books

"A cutting collection of poems about growing up a refugee, becoming a father, feeling surrounded by police brutality and the invisibility of poor Asian-Americans." --NPR's Code Switch

"Filled with snapshots of the American immigrant experience, intense love for family, and deep empathy for community, . . . Thousand Star Hotel, challenges racism, police brutality, and the silencing invisibility of the Asian American urban poor." --Bustle

"Written with immense empathy and honesty, Thousand Star Hotel is a moving, heartbreakingly beautiful portrait of the lives of Vietnamese refugees in the U.S." --BuzzFeed