"A collection of poetry by Paisley Rekdal"-- Provided by publisher.

In 2018, Paisley Rekdal was commissioned to write a poem commemorating the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad. The result is West: A Translation—an unflinching hybrid collection of poems and essays that draws a powerful, necessary connection between the railroad’s completion and the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943). Punctuated by historical images and told through multiple voices, languages, literary forms and documents, West explores what unites and divides America, and examines how our ideas about American history creep forward, even as the nation itself constantly threatens to spiral back.