Collage of Seoul

Collage of Seoul is a book of poetry tracing the spiritual journey of a man who, unnamed at birth, looks to both Eastern and Western cultures to form an identity through a love story that culminates with the decisive act of naming his two daughters. Through a mix of narrative and lyric poetry, Collage of Seoul transports the reader into a simulated flight between dreamscape and reality, faith and doubt, and allegory and biography as we are invited to explore the dangerous field of investigating who we are and where we come from.''What once was lost is found, lost, and found again in the prismatic Collage of Seoul, a journey to the complicated heart of adoption, identity, family, and faith. These ardent lyrics and narratives ring to the slightest touch, reverberating the sojourner’s ache for beauty and meaning. ’Perhaps,’ Newman writes, ’there was a second garden in Eden.’ I believe these poems were germinated there.''--Tania Runyan, author of Second Sky''Newman’s provocative and sweeping poems contain the insatiable hungers of knowing and being. Full of lush living images and adroit language, the pieces of his Collage of Seoul traverse the terra incognita of the poet’s evolving identity, fleshing out lines that speak deeply from ceaseless awes and grand concerns, both personal and political. . . . Plain and simple, this debut is a stunner.''--Dave Harrity, author of Making Manifest''Collage of Seoul tells a story riddled by the discontinuities of adoption. In it, Jae Newman invites us into his world--one where shadow is shelter and spine the ground of being; where a broken heart is broken open; and love’s inexplicable alchemy transmutes radical doubt into a provisional faith.''--Debra Kang Dean, author of Back to BackJae Newman lives in Rochester, New York, with his wife and two daughters. He teaches writing courses at Roberts Wesleyan College and Monroe Community College. A graduate of the MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University, his poetry has appeared in many notable literary journals and received a nomination for a Pushcart Prize. He is currently working toward a Master of Arts in Theological Studies at Northeastern Seminary.