Nomad, Heather Qin

Nomad, the radiant debut collection by Heather Qin, navigates a complex terrain of girlhood, cultural memory, and belonging. Here, a girl does her makeup in the rain; a mother cries in the airport; the speaker races into the night, wondering at the complexity of finding home in a world that often feels unanchored. Qin vividly portrays landscapes both internal and external, from “summer’s lap” to “the throat of the earth,” using nature as a mirror for human experience. With unflinching honesty, the speaker confronts the aftermath of trauma and loss all while asking to “love yourself like something worth loving.” Nomad offers a profound exploration of what it means to find home within oneself, inviting us to witness the journey of a soul learning to belong in a world of loss and flux.

“With unnerving dexterity, Heather Qin scales a complicated lattice of kinship and loneliness in Nomad. Like honey, the words of Qin’s frank yet earnest narrator linger on the lips: ‘That was the first time I got a haircut, laid still/against the porch as my mother slammed a knife/down the middle the way she prepared meat.’ Qin’s currency is depth and richness with sugar beets, summer rain, and smashed eggs accenting the world of her poems. The camera of Qin’s authorial eye manages to capture more than what we expect to see within the frame: her speaker turns our head toward the uncanny, the grotesque, and even the divine. Nomad is a delicious master class in both secret-keeping and secret-telling.”
–Rita Mookerjee, author of False Offering