“The human body, simultaneously an instance of a promise and the site of trauma and a promise broken, is the boundless occasion of these rich and engaging poems. I love most about them the music of thinking in images, how it encompasses feeling and singing, ranging from the raw and open to the exquisite and philosophical. There is so much yearning in these poems, and so much rejoicing, and wondering out loud about the meaning of our time on earth, especially in the face of pain and suffering.”
—Li-Young Lee
“Brian Komei Dempster’s Seize is, on one level, a powerfully candid, exquisitely performed exegesis of the relationship between a father and a son who is physically and cognitively challenged, a dynamic, interactive communion between two energies alive. Yet it is so much more. The forms and sequences of poems that recur through this text allow us to engage with the time shifts, the ‘seizures’ of event after event, which can baffle and frighten, as well as the ‘seizures’ in events—seizures of experience that any life manifests, though for most of us, the struggles can be ignored, denied. Through honed specifics, deft lyricism, sharply vital diction, and seamless movement, Dempster’s poems become a lens upon lives like our own. He exposes a series of truths about what it means to be human, to be living a life fraught with difficulties, which open us to more profound understandings and compassion than we had imagined, as we feel the terrors of facing what we have been most afraid to face. I was ‘Seize’-ed by the writing in this book. Though I leave the pages of the manuscript behind, the meanings here will not leave me. I have lived in its crucible, and I am deeply appreciative of how it has left me changed.”
—Rusty Morrison
“Brian Komei Dempster’s central subject—his son’s epilepsy—could not be more freighted with risk, and yet Seize achieves a pitch-perfect harmony of lament and praise, suffering and solace. At its heart is the child Brendan—‘his head, a sunflower / too heavy / on its stem’—and a father’s searingly honest account of what it means to love him, ‘A gold knot / of shadow and light.’ This is a stunning, heartbreaker of a book.”
—Patrick Phillips
• The Thing with Feathers: Poetry of Witness to Illness, Disability, & Trauma. AWP Conference. March 25, 2022.
• Art, Identity, and Legacy. Japanese American National Museum. March 19, 2022.
• conneCTions: a reading & workshop series. Connecticut Poetry Society. March 5, 2022.
• Writers of Discontent: Stop AAPI Hate. University of San Francisco English Department and Critical Diversity Studies. November 3, 2021.
• Not Your Model Minority: Artists, Rebels, and Misfits. Lit Crawl San Francisco. October 23, 2021.
• San Francisco Public Library. September 30, 2021.
• Through Seizure and Silence: Intersections of Disability, Race, and Wartime Incarceration. USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture. September 23, 2021.
• Marin Poetry Center Reading Series. Mill Valley Public Library. September 16, 2021.
• An Evening with Four Way Books. Greenlight Bookstore. September 15, 2021.
• Poetry Night Reading Series. June 17, 2021.
• Book Launch & Open Mic with Redheaded Stepchild. June 3, 2021.
• Four Way Books Benefit. May 13, 2021.
• Breaking Silences: Poets on the Legacy of Japanese American Imprisonment. Words in Action SCORES Poetry Summit. April 2, 2021.
• An Evening with Tommye Blount, Brian Komei Dempster, and Allison Hutchraft (via Zoom). Hudson Valley Writers Center. March 31, 2021.
• Wild & Precious Life Series. March 17, 2021.
• Poetry Flash Reading with Lee Herrick. Berkeley, California. March 14, 2021.
• Four Way Books Featured Reading. Bootleg Reading Series. March 5, 2021.
• Virtual Author Meet and Greet. AWP Conference. March 5, 2021.
• Poetry Flows Through Our Blood. J-Sei. Emeryville, California. February 28, 2021.
• Faculty Reading. University of San Francisco MFA in Writing Program. January 25, 2021.
• Group Reading. Eastwind Books of Berkeley. January 9, 2021.
• San Francisco Book Launch. Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California. December 5, 2020.
• Poetry is Bread, a distance reading series. November 14, 2020.
• Four Way Books Group Reading. Interabang Books. Dallas, Texas. November 10, 2020.
• Four Way Books Group Reading. Malvern Books. Austin, Texas. October 23, 2020.
• Seize Launch Reading. Instagram Live. September 12, 2020.
• Seventeen Syllables Group Reading. Stangers and Ghosts: Hauntings from the Asia Pacific. FELLOW. San Francisco, California. October 19, 2019.
• Reading with Jennifer Franklin and Connie Post. The Booksmith. San Francisco, California. August 15, 2019.
• TriQuarterly’s Annual Reading. AWP Offsite Event. Taborspace. Portland, Oregon. March 29, 2019.
Topaz and Seize
• Poetry Behind Barrack Walls. Poetry Flash Reading with Jeffrey Leong. East Bay Booksellers. Oakland, California. September 22, 2019.
• Seventeen Syllables: Things We Don't Talk About: Secrets and Silences. Praxis. San Francisco, California, October 20, 2018.
• Seventeen Syllables: A Poetry and Prose Reading by Asian American Writers. J-Sei. Emeryville, California. March 4, 2018.
• Faculty Spotlight: Brian Komei Dempster. “Resonance and Connection: Brian Komei Dempster in Conversation with Ifeoma Nzerem, Coordinator for Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Faculty Excellence.” Inside CRASE. September 18, 2023.
• A Two-Way Interview: Brian Komei Dempster and Dean Rader. Waxwing. Issue XXIV—Summer 2021.
• Interview with Shin Yu Pai. Lyric World podcast. Town Hall Seattle. April 12, 2021 (aired on KUOW May 9, 13, 2021).
• Malhotra, Mia Ayumi. “‘Each Poem a Window’: A Conversation with Brian Komei Dempster.” Lantern Review blog. February 19, 2021.
• Interview with Jennifer Perrine. Literary Arts. Portland, Oregon. January 14, 2021.
• Hamann, Dane. “Cupping a Tornado: An Interview with Brian Komei Dempster.” TriQuarterly: The Latest Word. December 9, 2020.
• Staples, Beth. “A World Beyond Words.” Interview with Shenandoah: The Peak. October 25, 2020.
• Brantingham, John. “Review: Seize by Brian Komei Dempster.” Cultural Daily. March 10, 2022.
• Braley, Olivia. “‘There's Love in Silence’: Language and Living in Uncertainty in Brian Komei Dempster's Seize.” Southern Humanities Review. February 4, 2022.
• O'Connor, DM. “Seize by Brian Komei Dempster.” RHINO Reviews. Volume 4 No. 10: October, 2021.
• Caycedo-Kimura, Aaron. “Seize by Brian Komei Dempster.” RHINO Reviews. Volume 4 No. 9: September, 2021.
• Matsueda, Pat. “Buried Stars: A Review of Brian Komei Dempster's SEIZE.” Mānoa and the Ethical Imagination: a Mānoa Journal blog. April 9, 2021.
• Vandrick, Stephanie. “‘ Seize,’ by Brian Komei Dempster.” StephanieVandrickReads. December 20, 2020.
Seize, Brian Komei Dempster’s follow-up to Topaz, spares no one the highs and lows of fatherhood. The speaker struggles to care for his young and ailing child—a child whose many medical problems create an obstacle course of moral and emotional dilemmas. How does a father come to terms with the large and unknowable mysteries of a child who cannot communicate in a “normative” way? How does a parent—especially one who is dependent on language—guide a child without the use of speech? And how does one become the parent of another when their own uncertainties, their own wounds—intergenerationally from war, from strained race relations, from constantly being denied a place to belong—are still healing?