“The core questions of Replica—around power and proximity, interracial relationships and white guilt, and mental health—‘sing in the darkness’ in poems that quite literally take up space, that flood the whiteness of the page.”
—Chet’la Sebree
“Replica is a lyrical reckoning. Low unravels complex layers of selfhood through hybrid prose poems, ars poeticas, and odes, and goes all in—rattling whiteness with necessary directness.”
—Jane Wong
“A haunting study in self-portraiture. Low’s wry, winning humor mixes with her unsparing poignancy, bidding us to see each other, and ourselves, better.”
—Philip Metres
“Low’s debut collection is one of reflection, interrogation, and clarity.… A surprising and tremendous work.”
—Sara Verstynen, Booklist (starred review)
Editors’ Selection for the Wisconsin Poetry Series
Available March 24, 2026
Stand-up comedy, a celebrity non-apology, observations of racism, and the slipperiness of nostalgia underpin Replica. In poignant, witty poems, Lisa Low navigates the tensions of solidarity and hostility in white spaces as she sets out to write differently about race.
“The problem of being with a white man is also a problem of writing,” Low says in a prose poem that turns writing about identity on its head. She peers in from outside the poem, as if through an open ceiling. The poem itself becomes a site of investigation—a counterpoint to constricting narratives about Asian American identity—reimagined as a dollhouse, a stage with props, an image the speaker wears like a bodysuit. Replica asks what it means to represent yourself and your experiences in a world where you are indistinguishable from others.
Read more:
The Chicago Review of Books interview with Angie Raney
Tone Madison interview with Rodlyn-mae Banting
Madison BookBeat podcast with Sara Batkie
7 Books that Explore Whiteness in Intimate Relationships Electric Lit reading list
The Poetics of Repetition Lit Hub essay
Cover design by adam bohannon, with art by Yuqing Zhu