''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. Life Choi uses She (pronoun), she and Singular they, they pronouns. She lived in Northampton, Massachusetts, and now resides in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Choi's par ...

. 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 as a herb 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. The flavour that a bay lea ...

" poems. Borrowed by

Danez Smith Danez Smith is an 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 receive ...

, 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

Writing for

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

, July Westhale praised Choi's language as "lyric and logical". In 2020, ''Soft Science'' won the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association's Elgin Award.

References

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