[A] formidable new essay collection . . . I read Minor Feelings in a fugue of enveloping recognition and distancing flinch. . . . [Cathy Park] Hong is writing in agonized pursuit of a liberation that doesn t look white a new sound, a new affect, a new consciousness and the result feels like what she was waiting for. Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror
Minor Feelings is a major reckoning, pulling no punches as the author uses her life s flashpoints to give voice to a wider Asian American experience, one with cascading consequences. NPR
Hong dissects her experiences as an Asian American to create an intricate meditation on racial awareness in the U.S. Through a combination of cultural criticism and personal stories, Hong, a poet, lays bare the shame and confusion she felt in her youth as the daughter of Korean immigrants, and the way those feelings morphed as she grew older. From analyzing Richard Pryor s stand-up to interrogating her relationship with the English language, Hong underscores essential themes of identity and otherness. Time
Cathy Park Hong s new memoir confronts the tough questions of Asian American identity. Drawing its title from Hong s theory regarding the impact of racial stereotypes and lies on ethnic minorities, this memoir-in-essays is a must-read at a time of rising racist violence and distrust. Bustle
An incendiary nonfiction book about a pressing social issue of the day . . . With its mix of the personal and political, Minor Feelings is the kind of trenchant social critique that s bound to get people talking. BuzzFeed
Hong busts out of the closed loop of Asian American discourse and takes off at a run. It s not that she doesn t address the model minority myth, the brutality of casual racism, or the mortifications of a first-gen childhood; she writes passionately about how Asians are dismissed, the lowly carpenter ants of the service industry. It s just that she also makes every immigrant talking point, as she calls them, viscerally specific. . . . Hong s essays make a case for solidarity that begins at self-awareness. GEN
At-times funny, often deeply thought-provoking work . . . Minor Feelings is an urgent consideration of identity, social structures, and artistic practice. It s a necessary intervention in a world burgeoning with creativity but stymied by a lack of language and ability to grapple with nuance. Hong takes a step in remedying that. Chicago Review of Books
Self aware and relentlessly sharp essays. Nimble, smart, and deliberate, Minor Feelings is a major conversation starter. Marie Claire
With radical candor, Cathy Hong Park critically examines what it means to be Asian American today and challenges herself and her readers to abandon the idea of a monolithic Asian American experience and instead acknowledge a range of racialized emotions which have been heretofore dismissed. Ms.
Part memoir, part cultural criticism, the poet and essayist s Cathy Park Hong s first book of prose had me underlining and annotating nearly every page. R. O. Kwon, Electric Literature
Cathy Park Hong is the author of three poetry collections including Dance Dance Revolution, chosen by Adrienne Rich for the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and Engine Empire. Hong is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her poems have been published in Poetry, The New York Times, The Paris Review, McSweeney s, Boston Review, and other journals. She is the poetry editor of The New Republic and full professor at the Rutgers University Newark MFA program in poetry. In 2021, she was named one of Time s 100 most influential people in the world.