We’re excited to offer an exclusive cover reveal of Asian American studies scholar and poet Mai-Linh Hong’s forthcoming debut poetry collection, Continental Drift (Trio House Press, July 1, 2026). This collection, which won the 2025 Trio Award, honors and explores the geography that made and continues to shape Hong’s ancestors’ story, her own story, and the future story of her descendants.
The cover features a photograph taken by Mai-Linh Hong’s uncle, Adam Hong, entitled “FLEETING.” Adam Hong shared a bit about the photo:
“This shot—aptly titled FLEETING—was captured during 2008 blizzard that plunged Central Park under more than 2 feet of snow. I was trudging through the park and lost my way in its ever quiet beauty before I encountered this flock of birds hurdling in the snow, hundreds of them, enough to startle and stop me on my track. I stood still for a few minutes, wishing this moment would last forever before I raised my camera. As expected, my first shutter click sent the birds into chaos. The burst of energy blasted cold air in my face. It lasted for a few seconds then it was gone. I can’t stop the passage of time but I can freeze moment like this forever, as I wished. Now this moment will be immortalized in print as the book cover for a collection of poems. How strange a random moment of spontaneity has become!”
Mai-Linh Hong spoke about the cover’s significance to the collection: “I was drawn to this photograph for many reasons, and chose it especially for the interplay of movement and stillness. The gorgeous blur of bird wings as a flock takes off from the ground, their energy and motion, all set against the perfectly sharp stillness of dry branches sticking up from the snow. Rootedness and flight next to each other. Ephemeral and vulnerable, but uncontained, these borderless birds! I love the story of my uncle, artist and photographer Adam Hong, walking through a snow-filled Central Park, hoping to photograph birds, and the photographing sets off a chaos of departure, and this surprise image. Migration, for me, has been a story of contrasts, of motion and stillness. On one hand, a story of chaos, departure, grief, waiting, but on the other hand, also of beauty, surprise, possibility, and the joy of reunion. Diasporic life can be lonely; we have flown all over and we miss our people, our flock. My family is spread across three continents, yet we find ways to connect across time and space, often in small unforgettable moments like the one this photograph captures. Such moments run throughout my book.
“The book is dedicated ‘to my family, near and far,’ so it is especially meaningful to me that we’re using my uncle’s photograph. He is one of my youngest uncles, which means he grew up and came of age in the United States, and culturally is somewhere between my and my parents’ generation. As refugees, the Viet kids of my generation didn’t necessarily feel the world was open to us, because what we needed above all was stability. Often, our parents wanted us to be pharmacists, computer programmers, so we could have jobs and not suffer precarity like our parents; it’s not that our parents didn’t want artists; they are creative people, too. But they wanted safety for us. My uncle showed me and my brother, who is also a writer and artist, that we can also pursue creative professions and that art is important, no matter what. Our voices and visions should be out there as part of refugee experience, and when we speak, we speak for others who are also artists at heart, but maybe aren’t seen because they are busy just surviving.
“The design by Joel W. Coggins is perfect: the warmth of sepia and aliveness of this shade of green, the clean font, the image placement, everything is cohesive. It makes for a gentle and dignified framing of the photograph and text. I find the cover as a whole striking and elegant.”
POETRY
Continental Drift
By Mai-Linh Hong
Trio House Press
July 1, 2026
