Catalogue of Ripening

“To read this collection is to witness Sabrina Guo’s ‘ripening.’ This startling, important book from a young poet-activist moves from curiosity to wisdom, from nuclear family to social justice, from high school science to climate crisis. Grounded in detail—pink moons and mercury poisoning, butterscotch and bitter pills, school shootings and birdsong—these poems open to lyric imagination and wonder. Sabrina Guo reveals the litany of ways young adults face a daunting world with courage and creativity, ‘because isn’t luck / something that’s made?’”

“A mini-epic that charts the changes that have, are, and that may happen over generations—the grand narrative that all alive now play a part in. There is suffering here, but also that vital force—hope, as we glimpse an aspirational future.”

“Sabrina Guo's Catalogue of Ripening offers a bold, unwavering view of the balance between tenderness and violence that has come to define adolescence amidst the pandemic of the 2020's. Expertly weaving complex, compelling explorations of girlhood, heritage, family dynamics, and societal trauma, the poems of Catalogue of Ripening are a testament not only to Guo's poetic prowess, but also to a curiosity that's both deeply personal and unflinchingly global in nature. How fortunate that we have this blazing debut from Sabrina Guo to read (and re-read) and remember.”

"What does heaven offer us? Catalogue of Ripening lurches from disaster to disaster—climate, school shootings, personal illness, recording what the youngest generation confronts by the minute. Guo hits a wry note in ‘Afterlife,’ where ‘coins [spill] from the pockets of Shàngdì, God of Heaven and all things.’ But on earth, Guo observes, ‘Your house shelters / no infant, so cradle yourself.’ What Heaven offers us is us. And while this is not the answer we always want, these poems argue for realism over myth—the activist who crosses borders illegally, the ‘doctor's hand’ that ‘does not shake,’ and, sublimely, ‘an extra canteen of ice.’”

"‘One day, my children should swim in clear waters,’ Sabrina Guo writes in her book Catalogue of Ripening. It’s the ‘should’ that breaks my heart, and brings to mind all the ‘shoulds’ that are at stake. After reading these poems, I look to the world, like Guo, and catalogue everything that gleams in the moonlight, and everything that burns in the sun. Through aubades and elegies and dexterous forms, through poems that look to the soil and poems that look to the stars, Guo teaches me to notice. Notice each plant in my window. Notice which stem carries water to the leaves. These poems carry water. These poems ripen in your mind long after you have finished reading them.”

“Catalogue of Ripening is dazzling. With delicious recklessness, gutting narratives, and visceral metaphors, Sabrina Guo plunges headlong into toxic waters. Death is inescapable here: it lurks in the food and drinking water, in the schools, on childhood beaches, and even at home. But her writing is not without hope—and the poems themselves are part of the antidote: “language itself could extract the mercury / from her blood, her tissue, her bone, her brain, her / memory—bit by poisonous bit.”

“Guo’s Catalogue of Ripening gestures to a world rife with violence and vibrant bodies that blossom awake by night. Family history lurks behind every corner; from poisoned rivers to New England hospitals to lipstick smears. How must a daughter ripen—when she has already begun to rot? With rich poetic sensibility and heartbreaking honesty, Guo’s speakers dare to dance at knifepoint, where mothers and Mother Earth watch in soured silence. All the fruit has fallen, but Guo invites us to pick up the pieces anyway; to startle at the beauty of morning.”

“Guo’s Catalogue of Ripening is a remarkable collection of verses culled from Generation Z and those who came before. Reading this incredible book, one wonders how such maturity, insight, and skill are present in someone so young. Guo is an ambitious writer, and her work takes us from paper cranes to semiautomatic weapons, contaminated waterways, and suicidal ideation. An absolutely stunning work.”

“Sabrina Guo's voice is both unflinching and tender. Whether exploring ancestry and girlhood, the climate crisis, or immigration, Sabrina Guo shows readers what it means to search, care, and come of age in a time of such urgency and uncertainty.”