''Soft Science'' is a poetry collection published in 2019, written by poet and writer

Franny Choi Franny Choi (born February 11, 1989) is an American writer, poet and playwright. Personal life Choi lived in Northampton, Massachusetts and now resides in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Her fascination with poetry began when she was in the third or f ...

. It received positive reviews.

Development

Many of the poems in ''Soft Science'' appear in Choi's 2017 chapbook ''Death by Sex Machine''. Choi began the chapbook without " ..really nowingwhat it might turn into". Choi has also said she drew inspiration for the collection from a series of poems she wrote about the character Kyoko from the 2015 science fiction film '' Ex Machina'' though only one of the Kyoko poems appears in ''Soft Science''. Choi has referred to the Kyoko poems as "

bay leaf The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. It may come from several species of tr ...

" poems. Borrowed by

Danez Smith Danez Smith is an African-American, poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections '' nsertBoy'' and ''Don't Call Us Dead: Poems'', both of which have ...

, the term indicates the poems were necessary to "get things going" but not necessary for inclusion in the final version of the book. Choi faced moments of "self-doubt" as she wrote the book.

Themes

The collection deals with technology and language's relationship with technology, as well as themes of identity. In ''Fields Magazine'', Shannon Austin commented on the collection's treatment of language, writing that Choi " ..plays with language, manipulating typical definitions, sentence structures, and grammatical rules in order to reject what we have come to think of as the norm".

Reception

According to literary review aggregator

Book Marks Literary Hub is a daily literary website that launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter. Conten ...

, the collection received mostly "Rave" reviews. Writing for

Lambda Literary The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBT literature, LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, prese ...

, July Westhale praised Choi's language as "lyric and logical".

References

{{Reflist, 2 2019 poetry books American poetry collections Alice James Books books