Water Guest

Lake Tahoe: home of the Washoe Tribe, a shining blue jewel that crowns the Sierra Nevada, and a beloved American vacation destination made accessible by the transcontinental railroad built largely by Chinese laborers. This gorgeous location forms the site from which Caroline M. Mar's stunning collection, Water Guest, seeks to reconcile issues of identity, ownership, and place. Mar's attempts to locate herself geographically, genealogically, and etymologically echo throughout the poems. A direct ancestor was a railroad laborer; is that why her love for the land feels older than herself? Or is it the siren call of the deep, clear water?

Raising questions of inheritance, the conundrum of land ownership, and the violence of history, Mar gives voice to the lost writing of Chinese laborers and silent communion to those of us still here--immigrant and Indigenous, settler and resister. This engaging collection finds acceptance, if not resolution, through the questions themselves.

Author: Caroline M. Mar
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 04/01/2025
Pages: 112
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.80w x 0.40d
ISBN13: 9780299352646
ISBN10: 0299352641
BISAC Categories:
- Poetry | American | General

About the Author
Caroline M. Mar is the great-granddaughter of a railroad laborer and the author of Special Education and the chapbook Dream of the Lake. A high school health educator in her hometown of San Francisco, she is getting to know her new home of Oakland. A member of Rabble Collective, she has been granted residencies at Storyknife, Ragdale, and Hedgebrook, among others.