Read an excerpt: “HOUSE IN THE SKY”

Praise for How to Build a House

“Both a song of survival and a summoning of ghosts, "How to Build a House" is not only a record but a recovery, a shipyard of stories that reckon with what it means to be displaced, to haunt your own home. In this reclamation of history and lineage, a "house" is more than a place: it's a body, a blade edge, a belonging to the wounds that birthed us. With hunger and tenderness, Liang writes the Taiwan Strait as a spectre, a gutter of grief. But he also shows us where loss makes its second life in the light. I am grateful for this haunting, for the way Liang sets all maps ablaze and rebuilds a home from the ashes. I belong to this book like a bloodline. When Liang asks, "When is a boat considered an island," he answers by writing migration as mother tongue, showing us that we are our own homelands."

— Kristin Chang

About Kyle Liang

Kyle Liang is a 22-year old, first-generation-born, Chinese American poet from Norwich, Connecticut. His work has appeared in a number of journals including Stirring, Apogee, Crab Fat Magazine, Entropy, and Hobart and his have been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and Bettering American Poetry. Kyle's family is originally from Taiwan and Malaysia. Kyle currently lives in Hamden, Connecticut where he is completing a MHS in Physician Assistant at Quinnipiac University.