Ashore

Carl Phillips selected this collection as winner of the 2021 Berkshire Prize. From the waters of Waikīkī, to the forests outside Honolulu, and across the Pacific ocean, the poems in Laurel Nakanishi’s debut collection consider the relationships between place and story. In estrangement and intimacy, at home and away, on the surface and in the depths, these poems level a steady gaze on the world and ask, “And yet, what do I really know?” The answer comes in memory and geography, in old songs and moments folded into a larger time. These poems ask us to live deeply on the earth, to attend to the “stories at work in us,” and known ourselves anew.