If I Do Not Reply

If I Do Not Reply is the first UK collection by Hong Kong poet Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, and brings us a welcome new voice to speak of matters in a place too often seen through expatriate, rather than native eyes. Hong Kong may once have been a borrowed place, on borrowed time, situated physically in one world, and mentally somewhere between two, but its current uncomfortable position finds an apt chronicler here. "A unique poetic testament of life in and out of Hong Kong between 2019 and 2022, spanning the Covid epidemic, and unrelentingly outspoken and courageous in defence of human freedoms facing systemic repression. Yet subject matter isn't all. Gifted in every aspect of her poetic craft. Tammy Lai-Ming Ho is witty, clever, passionate - and acutely observant of the inner life. Although written with a Hong Kong sensibility, these poems transcend contemporality and location. They map our times: all our times." -Richard Berengarten