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Tree of Knowledge by Victoria Chang — book cover

Tree of Knowledge

by Victoria Chang

National Book · 2026 · Longlist
Farrar, Straus and GirouxPoetry144 pagesISBN 9780374614362

Award History

AwardYearStatus
National Book Award for Poetry2026Longlist

About This Book

A collection haunted by a eucalyptus tree cut down on the poet's street, contemplating art, nature, death, and the afterlife in poems interspersed with embroidered photography. The long central poem examines the 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from Eureka, California. Longlisted for the 2026 National Book Award for Poetry.

About the Author

Victoria Chang (born 1970) is an American poet, writer, editor, and critic of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, raised in Detroit, Michigan. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford (MBA), and Warren Wilson MFA Program, and transitioned from business roles to poetry, serving as Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech. Notable works include her poetry collections OBIT (2020, winner of Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, PEN/Voelcker Award), Barbie Chang (2017), The Boss (2013), With My Back to the World (2024, Forward Prize), and nonfiction Dear Memory (2021), alongside children's books like Is Mommy? Read more →

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