Sophia Terazawa’s "Oracular Maladies": a Book Review by Avery Herker
Sophia Terazawa’s Oracular Maladies is a daring expression through form. This
collection of poems was published on March 15, 2025 by Noemi Press, a fresh taste of poetry that is sure to come throughout the rest of the year. Throughout the course of the book, Terazawa explores her relationship to her Vietnamese and Japanese heritage through her poetry and their forms. Terazawa experiments with form through each poem, having them act as a segment of a play/tv show, drawing connections to her Vietnamese and Japanese culture. Her poems possess powerful observations and act as vessels for statements that act to reclaim history, highlighting the turmoils that they have faced. The group of characters referred to as “Divas” consistently show up throughout the course of the collection and act as main characters of this performance that is their culture, tethering Terazawa to the performance that is her own culture, on display for all to see and pass judgment, even if it’s not their place.
Terazawa was able to boldly capture her culture through the lens of a performance, a statement on the way that a society is forced to reclaim their own culture under the gaze of the world, and the execution is well done. Her poetry stands as a strong testament to the resilience of the Vietnamese people, the way that they stand strong in order to rebuild themselves after the travesties of the Vietnam War, “Our theater remains / standing fractures in the dark / who warble without smudging their makeup.” The way that she creates connection in these theatrical forms is nothing less than magnificent and are uniquely hers, the performance she presents to the audience that is the world. She does not shy away from pointing the finger at those who deserve to be pointed at, the ones responsible and the ones that dismissed the nation as one that faced the consequences for their actions. She empowers herself, her culture, through her poetry, reclaiming her culture just as their society had to reclaim it.
-Avery Herker
Avery Herker is an English and Creative Writing major at Waldorf University. Her dream is to go on to get her master's and become a teacher after graduation. She likes to spend her free time reading books and playing games.