publications & projects

Books

Little Sister Left Behind is a tender, unapologetic look at the Vietnamese experience over the last thirty years—both in Vietnam and in America. The troubled relationship between our heroine and her family ultimately reveals the universal human tenderness and cruelty that places in high relief the ties that bind us with one another.

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Lê’s poetry is passionate and honest. Her mellifluous voice is enhanced by the music that varies from sultry to melancholy to visceral contemplation. A must have for every library.

Produced & arranged by Charley Trujillo & Samantha Lê, vocal by Samantha Lê, keyboard & synthesizer by Jerry Sauceda, sax by Abraham Vasquez, guitar by Don Nicks, engineered, mix & master by Jerry Sauceda (Systems Productions).

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Corridors is a collection of visually refreshing, and literary accomplished poems. Samantha Lê, in her debut effort, exhibits a vibrant confidence, alluding to a poetic preoccupation of the fist order. The poems are self-referential but compassionate, objective but personal. The prose is reminiscent of Paz’s Agulia y Sol, Dario’s Azul, and Rimbau’s Illuminations in its tendency to expose the poetic and mystical side of intersubjective human experiences. The work, as a whole, forms a loose narrative of coming-of-age poetry. Lê’s poetry exhibits insight, wonder, and imagination; Lê seldom appears, but when she does she does so in a tender poetic voice.

Reading this collection of poems is an exercise in creative altruism. One must let go, if for just a moment, of all existential pre-occupations and walk through the “Corridors” which Lê has littered with visions, memories, and sometimes optimistic, other times melancholic, musings on life’s everyday foibles. Lê’s combination of maturity and youthful exuberance are remarkable.

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Journal Publications

(selected published and forthcoming works)

“Kitchen Ghosts” and “In the Presence of the Kitchen Gods.”Copper Nickel (University of Colorado Denver), Denver, CO, Issue No. 29, Fall 2019, pp. 128-130.

“Summer Sale.” Common Ground Review (Western New England University), Springfield, MA, Vol. 19, Issue No. 1, Spring/Summer 2017, pp. 50.

“This is Not a Love Poem,” “Eastbound Train,” and “Poetry Reading.” The Red Clay Review (Kennesaw State University), Kennesaw, GA, Issue No. 4, Spring 2011, pp. 6-10.

“My Man Gone Now.” San Pedro River Review (Blue Horse Press), Redondo Beach, CA, Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 2010, pp. 38.

“When Morning Comes.” Able Muse Review, San Jose, CA, Issue No. 9, Summer 2010.

“Phôi Pha (Wither)” and “Down River.” The Journal (The Ohio State University), Columbus, OH, Volume 42 Issue No. 3, Summer 2018, pp. 47-48.

“Border Crossing” and “Watching Dad’s Porn on the VCR.” The Minnesota Review (Virginia Tech, Duke University Press), Durham, NC, Issue No. 90, Spring 2018, pp. 14-15.

“Fourteen.” The Suburban Review, Melbourne, Australia, Issue No. 8, Fall 2017, pp. 27.

“Making Love on the Roof.”  The Boiler Journal, Dallas, TX, Vol. XXIV, Summer 2017, online.

“Cactus Dawn.” Off the Coast Magazine, Rockland, ME, Summer 2017, online.

“Last Bar in Okinawa” and “Home from College.” Two Thirds North (Stockholm University), Stockholm, Sweden, Spring/Summer 2017, pp. 40-41 & 65.

“Letters from Iraq.” Third Wednesday (Gravity Presses (lest we all float away), Inc.), Ann Arbor, MI, Vol. VIII, No. 2, Spring 2015, pp. 58-60.

“Hellyer Park.” Halfway Down the Stairs, Winter 2010.

“In the Kitchen.” The Greensilk Journal, Spring 2010.

“Blues Woman.” Reed Magazine (San Jose State University), San Jose, CA, Vol. 62,
Spring 2009, pp. 132.

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Special Projects

Poem: “Đi Về Little Saigon”
Project: San José Story Map Project
San José State University’s Deep Humanities Initiative

Poem: “Second Name”
Project: Spring Mother Tongue
Poetic Voices of Santa Clara County

Poem: “From the Platform on First Street”
Project: Poetry on the Move
Invention: Poems that Celebrate Who We Are and What We Do in Silicon Valley

Poem: “Carrot Mother and Child”
(In response to “Carrot Mother and Child” by Peter Vandenberg)
Project: Art:21 Screening and Poetry Invitational
San José Museum of Art & Poetry Center San José

Poem: “Catching Crawdads”
(James Phelan Award)
Project: East Side Voices Project
San José State University Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program, Writer-in Residence & Donor Circle for the Arts

Poem” To Myself at Nine”
(Santa Clara County Poetry Prize)
Project: Santa Clara County Poetry Project
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

Project: Ai ~ Annotated Bibliography