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Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now

@poetrybyallison.bsky.social

Singaporean poet | Reacquaint & Molar (kith books, 2024) | Assistant Poetry Editor at ANMLY | She/her | https://linktr.ee/allisonthung

56 Posts1472 Follower 482 Folgt

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · 8mo ago

"When I say I don’t know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it properly [....] When I say I don’t know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it painlessly." - Allison Thung, Swimming as Allegory for Living @poetrybyallison.bsky.social kithbooks.com/shop/p/reacquaint

Reacquaint
Allison Thung

cover:
the view of a sunset or sunrise out through an airplane window with fingers pressed to the glass

kithbooks.com

Swimming as Allegory for Living
Allison Thung

When I say I don’t know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it properly. That they tried to teach me, but gave up when I couldn’t figure how to turn my head just enough to breathe, yet not sink. I mean I can do some half-assed version of the front crawl in which my face stays submerged for as long as I can hold my breath, while my arms slice through water in unintended tandem, and my feet paddle relentlessly like a runner duck’s, propelling my body forward in small bursts, until it feels like my lungs will explode if I don’t allow my head to break through the surface that very instant to take in as much air as I possibly can, even if the lost momentum causes me to sink like a stone. When I say I don’t know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it painlessly.

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · 12mo ago

“There is thrill in feeling the rigid shatter against the soft” - Allison Thung, MOLAR @poetrybyallison.bsky.social Print: kithbooks.com/shop/p/molar eBook: kithbooks.com/digital/p/molar

MOLAR
Allison Thung

cover:
a nori flecked almond on a background of very pale grey

text:
“There is thrill in feeling the rigid shatter
against the soft”

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · last yr.

Two of four new poems I have in @rfpress.bsky.social’s latest issue! “Maybe: Human” is for the girlies (gender neutral) who sometimes feel like they’re cosplaying Person rather than just being one; while “Hands” grieves death metaphorical into literal.

"Maybe: Person", "Poem in which I justify my unfounded yet fervent beliefs", "Waste" & "Hands" by Allison Thung

Maybe: Person

Last night I lost one of my three phones somewhere in the house, so I called it with one of the other two, and the call came up as being from Maybe: Person, and I think it’s because despite looking like, walking like, talking like one, I am always just shy of being one, always wearing my Personness like an oversized poncho hastily swiped from the back of someone’s chair on a rainy day, or an undersized hoodie reluctantly borrowed from a slighter classmate in a freezing lecture theatre, so that I am perpetually ill at ease, to the point that there is comfort in discomfort, and certainty in uncertainty, or maybe I just need to fix the settings on my phone, maybe.

Hands

I.

You are alive, but only in memory. Once cold of your hands magnified thousand-fold in some attempt to extinguish the now scorch of your decisions.

II.

You are alive, but only in imagination. Even in a land of eternal summer, the wind is always wintry, so that the heat of your hands is unceasingly essential.

III.

You are alive, and then you are not. Lilies in lap, I watch them lay you in the dirt. From where I sit, I cannot see your hands.

Allison Thung is a Singaporean poet. She is the author of Reacquaint (kith books, 2024) and Molar (kith books, 2024). Her poetry has been published in ANMLY, Sixth Finch, Cease, Cows, Gone Lawn, and elsewhere, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and Best Small Fictions. Allison is an Assistant Poetry Editor at ANMLY. Find her on Instagram and Bluesky @poetrybyallison, or at www.allisonthung.com.

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · last yr.

I’ve four new poems out in the latest issue of RFP! Read them here: www.roifaineantpress.com/post/maybe-p...

"Maybe: Person", "Poem in which I justify my unfounded yet fervent beliefs", "Waste" & "Hands" by Allison Thung

Maybe: PersonLast night I lost one of my three phones somewhere in the house, so I called it with one of the other two, and the call came up as being from Maybe: Person, and I think it’s because despi...

roifaineantpress.com

Roi Fainéant Press SUBS ARE OPEN, BAYBEE!@rfpress.bsky.social · last yr.

Oh, hello! Issue 88 is hot and fresh on your plate. Tell your grandma to update her recipe book. www.roifaineantpress.com/blog #WritingCommunity

Roi Fainéant Press SUBS ARE OPEN, BAYBEE!@rfpress.bsky.social · last yr.

Are you ready for a poetry party hosted by the wonderful Allison Thung? @poetrybyallison.bsky.social “Maybe:Person” is in the 8/31 edition bringing to light personhood & how that concept sometimes lays just out of reach. There are a few more by this same author in this very edition out on Sunday!

Last night I lost one of my three phones somewhere in the house, so I called it with one of the other two, and the call came up as being from Maybe: Person,

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

Swimming as Allegory for Living Allison Thung @poetrybyallison.bsky.social 31 days of wim's favourite poems from kith books #SealeyChallenge 6/31

Reacquaint
Allison Thung

cover:
fingertips rest on the inside of an airplane window facing sunrise.

text:
Swimming as Allegory for Living

When I say I don’t know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it properly. That they tried to teach me, but gave up when I couldn’t figure how to turn my head just enough to breathe, yet not sink. I mean I can do some half-assed version of the front crawl in which my face stays submerged for as long as I can hold my breath, while my arms slice through water in unintended tandem, and my feet paddle relentlessly like a runner duck’s, propelling my body forward in small bursts, until it feels like my lungs will explode if I don’t allow my head to break through the surface that very instant to take in as much air as I possibly can, even if the lost momentum causes me to sink like a stone. When I say I don’t know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it painlessly.

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · last yr.

Many thanks to @sundresspub.bsky.social and guest curator Alexis Ivy for this week featuring poems from my debut poetry chapbook REACQUAINT (@kithbooks.bsky.social) in the Best Dressed section of The Wardrobe! This is “Singular”: sundressblog.com/2025/08/04/t...

The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: Reacquaint by Allison Thung - The Sundress Blog

This selection, chosen by guest editor Alexis Ivy, is from Reacquaint by Allison Thung (kith books 2024). Singular Say We,while offering no further context. Tell me— We w...

sundressblog.com

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · last yr.

Wrote a #poem about (not) retiring, getting retrenched, and all that fun stuff. #poetry

Retirement

People laugh when I say my retirement plan is to die, as if I’m not as serious as my retirement plan. I once read a tweet that went something like (start italics) I could afford to retire right now if I passed away next Tuesday (end italics), and now I cite it whenever I am asked about the future. Why is it always Tuesday with these quips? Is it because it’s not one of the milestone options like the start, end, middle of the work week; or the weekend? If that’s the reason, I guess Thursday would work too. It was a Monday, though, when I was given the news—expediency over unpredictability, I guess. In the same breath they complimented my hair, they told me my role had been made redundant. My friend in London complains she couldn’t get tickets to a band she’s seen thirty-eight times over the past two years. She says she hates when people assume she has rich parents, and wishes she could tell everyone she earns more money than her father ever did. When I was a child, I wished I had a thousand dollars. Now I wish I had problems a thousand dollars could fix.

Allison Thung (@poetrybyallison)

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · last yr.

Wrote a #poem about (not) retiring, getting retrenched, and all that fun stuff. #poetry

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

Allison Thung’s poems are narrational and intimate. Peppered with questions and lines inviting introspection, Reacquaint tells one side of a story, leaving each reader to find their own You. @poetrybyallison.bsky.social

Reacquaint
Allison Thung

cover:
A photo of the sun rising above a layer of cloud as seen through an airplane window. The fingers of a right hand rest on the glass above 'Poems by Allison Thung' is written in white. In the blue sky above the sunrise, the title 'REACQUAINT' appears in all caps white.

text:
Swimming as Allegory for Living

When I say I don't know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it properly. That they tried to teach me, bur gave up when I couldn't figure how to turn my head just enough to breathe, yet not sink. I mean I can do some half-assed version of the front crawl in which my face stays submerged for as long as I can hold my breath, while my arms slice through water in unintended tandem, and my feet paddle relentlessly like a runner duck's, propelling my body forward in small bursts, until it feels like my lungs will explode if I don't allow my head to break through the surface that very instant to take in as much air as I possibly can, even if the lost momentum causes me to sink like a stone. When I say I don't know how to swim, I mean I never learned to do it painlessly.

Fahmidan Group @fahmidangroup.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out our first review for April on Molar by Allison Thung Read here: rb.gy/lseokl

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

“Damage / on a Tuesday; / consequence / on a Saturday.” (Damage) Thus begins the story that leads us to Molar, Allison Thung’s micro collection of poems that center her fractured relationship with her tooth. @poetrybyallison.bsky.social

Molar
Allison Thung

cover:
a photograph of a nori flecked roasted almond just like the one that broke the poet's tooth spurring the writing of this micro collection.

[]

The cheek.
the (removed)
nerve of it all.

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

I want more, so I can patchwork it all into some monstrous tribute to/cheap clone of you. Build a screwed up, Calvin-and-Hobbesque snowman of you. - Spring Print: kithbooks.com/shop/p/reacquaint eBook: kithbooks.com/digital/p/reacquaint @poetrybyallison.bsky.social

kith in print

A fluid blend of poetic forms, Reacquaint urges the reader to look back at how far they have come. There is a clarity that becomes apparent as our earlier selves pass into the rearview, & Thung stands...

kithbooks.com

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

we can't wait to see you! trans, Crip, queer books forever!

kith & kith authors
@awp

find us near concessions in the book fair at T1058

Date: March 27-29
Time: 9am-5pm

kith
AWP 2025
event schedule

2/26

nat raum & luna rey hall out like a lamb
7pm @ Lilly Rose

3/27

kith
9am-5pm Book Fair T1058

Mac Crane -Queer Poems & Dance Party
6pm @ Melody, 751 N Virgil Ave

Allison Thing ANMLY Friends & Enemies -
6:30pm ONLINE

Andrian Dallas Frandle -Writer's Karaoke
7pm @ The Stowaway

3/28

kith
9am-5pm Book Fair T1058

3/29

kith
9am-5pm Book Fair T1058

Davi Schweizer w/ Troublemaker Firestarter - The Literary Auction
6:30 Village Well Books

kith AWP 2025
friends of kith

troublemaker firestarter
912

Alternative Milk/JAKE
T915

new words {press}
T1040

Querencia
1057

Abode
T848

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

Thung stands in the first light of distance, reflecting back on all that's been said and done. Reacquaint meets us in this moment and urges the reader to see how far they've come. @poetrybyallison.bsky.social

Reacquaint
Allison Thung
cover: the view of a sunrise through an airplane window with the silhouette of a hand coming, fingers on the glass

the cover sits in a white circle surrounded by the title repeated over and over in all caps black on white

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

Allison Thung’s Molar centers her fractured relationship with her tooth. These poems are at once visceral and reflective. Floss in the gap between canine and incisor, Molar slips past the crown and exposes the bone. @poetrybyallison.bsky.social

Molar
Poems by Allison Thung
cover: a single glossy roasted almond flecked with nori on a background of pale grey

the cover image sits in a white circle surrounded by the book's title repeated over and over in black all caps on white

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · last yr.

The body— how it knows to rid itself of what by which it is no longer served. - Allison Thung, Bone spicules @poetrybyallison.bsky.social kithbooks.com/shop/p/molar

kith in print

The body— how it knows to rid itself of what by which it is no longer served. - Bone spicules “Damage / on a Tuesday; / consequence / on a Saturday.” (Damage) Thus begins the story that leads us t...

kithbooks.com

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · 2y ago

Happy first birthday to my first book baby! If you have supported Reacquaint in any way at all this past year, thank you. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s available in both print and digital formats via @kithbooks.bsky.social here: www.kithbooks.com/shop/p/reacq... I hope you’ll check it out!

In the foreground, a hand holds up a copy of Reacquaint by Allison Thung. The text on the book cover says “Reacquaint” in all caps at the top and “Poems by Allison Thung” in sentence case at the bottom. In the background, out of focus, is a collection of vinyl records situated in a Kallax shelving unit, with a vinyl copy of Lord Huron’s Long Lost and a rosewood turntable placed side by side atop said unit.

A hand holds up a copy of Reacquaint by Allison Thung, with the book open to pages 36 and 37. Page 36 features the poem “Road Trip”, which goes as follows:

There is an inimitable kind of invincible you are at 19, making promises you cannot keep to friends you will not keep. Because hubris is not deception, and it's not a lie if you believe it. And at 19, there is no reason to disbelieve the plans you make with Sarah and Ed over McDonald's hashbrowns to road trip across California right after graduation, even though you paid with loose change in currency from a country 8,610 miles away. While Ed nods off in his seat from yet diagnosed narcolepsy, Sarah tells you how the best breakfast potatoes are always from diners attached to gas stations in the middle of nowhere, and you nod sagely as though you are in on the secret. For the rest of college, hashbrowns and gas stations alternate as shorthand or your grand plan, symbols of an unbreakable promise. But after comes 20, and after 20, 21. And one day you are suddenly a 30-year-old liar, Sarah is a text message from 6 years ago you never responded to, and Ed is Edmund or maybe Edward again. And though you will meet other people, go other places, and have other adventures, every so often you will think about the time you never pulled up to the gas station-diner combination at which Sarah had the best breakfast potatoes of her life, only to discover the entire place had long been abandoned for ruin, and the only lights you thought you saw incandesced from Sarah's memories and your imagination.

Page 37 is the subtitle page for the fourth and final section of the book. It says “IV. Release”.

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · 2y ago

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · 2y ago

Touching on embodiment, illness, burgeoning adulthood, and the emotional detritus of loves lost and found, Thung’s poems are peppered with questions prompting introspection. Reacquaint tells one side of a story, inviting each reader to imagine their own. @poetrybyallison.bsky.social

Allison Thung
Reacquaint
cover: photo of fingers pressed against the glass of an airplane window, a sunrise beyond

"In this deeply personal debut chapbook, Thung stuns, raising her voice with an uncanny lyricism all her own. 'with abandon, without regrets'."
- Sarah Clark

Available in print & eBook

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · 2y ago

If someone started a brand of eye drops called “House of Eyedration”, they’d have the perfect tagline in “Not a dry eye in the house”.

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · 2y ago

“Damage / on a Tuesday; / consequence / on a Saturday.” (Damage) Thus begins this micro collection centering Allison Thung’s fractured relationship with her tooth. Floss in the gap between canine and incisor, Molar slips past the crown and exposes the bone. @poetrybyallison.bsky.social

Allison Thung
Molar
a single glossy almond flecked with flakes of nori on a background of grey

"There is thrill
in feeling the
rigid shatter
against the
soft"

available in print and eBook

kith books @kithbooks.bsky.social · 2y ago

The body— how it knows to rid itself of what by which it is no longer served. - Bone spicules @poetrybyallison.bsky.social kithbooks.com/shop/p/molar

kith in print

kithbooks.com

ANMLY @anmlymag.bsky.social · 2y ago

Call for Work: Until You Get Here, Queer Epistolaries Deadline: March 15, 2025 "Queer folks have been keeping each other company on the page for as long as we’ve existed—to practice solidarity, extend generosity, resist, wonder, flirt. The queer epistolary is a reverent space..."

Call for Work: Until You Get Here, Queer Epistolaries

For six years and counting, we — Jody and Zoë — have been sending each other love notes: epistolary poems, long form emails with subject…

medium.com

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’ve a poem in the latest issue of the inimitable @sixthfinch.bsky.social! Read “Second Nature” below, and be sure to check out the full issue here: sixthfinch.com/mainwinter25...

sixth finch
Winter 2025

Allison Thung | Second Nature

Life thus far but an exercise in fleeing from failure disguised as pursuing perfectionism and precision. To succeed in the least time and fewest attempts possible, and so always seeking to capture the perfect shot in no more than three presses of the shutter button, or finalise a poem in just two rounds of edits, or even determine on first encounter that those eventually loved will be worthy of that affection. And in each such endeavour, find propensity turn instinct, until no environment nor person however indulgent could ever be the safety needed to fail without fear.

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · 2y ago

I’ve a poem in the latest issue of the inimitable @sixthfinch.bsky.social! Read “Second Nature” below, and be sure to check out the full issue here: sixthfinch.com/mainwinter25...

Stanchion @stanchion.bsky.social · 2y ago

Anyone want to receive new books & exclusive goodies in the mail every other month? The 2025 Stanchion Book Club is on sale for $10 off this week! Ladies, Ladies, Ladies e-reader PDFs going to members soon! And you can use Klarna to pay in installments! www.stanchionzine.com/product-page...

2025 Stanchion Book Club Membership | Stanchion

When you become a member of the 2025 Stanchion Book Club, you will receive the 6 physical books Stanchion will publish in 2025, but this is just the start of what's in store for you. You will also rec...

stanchionzine.com

ANMLY @anmlymag.bsky.social · 2y ago

ANMLY: Friends & Enemies, an online reading March 27th, 6:30pm EST w/ sterling-elizabeth Arcadia, Rita Mookerjee, JL Moultrie, Allison Thung, Levi Cain, jonah wu, Aylli Cortez, & Temperance Aghamohammadi Add us to your calendar! More info coming soon!

Allison Thung | Reacquaint & Molar out now @poetrybyallison.bsky.social · 2y ago

Thrilled to be kicking off the new year with new work in a longtime dream pub! Check out “Second Nature”, a prose poem about fear of failure: sixthfinch.com/thung1.html Full, gorgeous issue this way: sixthfinch.com/mainwinter25...

Sixth Finch@sixthfinch.bsky.social · 2y ago

Our winter issue is live: sixthfinch.com Featuring @emilyapoetry.bsky.social @mariannelchan.bsky.social @patrycjasara.bsky.social @kerrin-mccadden.bsky.social @poetrybyallison.bsky.social @nickbono.bsky.social and many more