'Nuanced, challenging, sometimes hilarious, often anguished, this impressive reimagining of The Odyssey makes for an unforgettable road trip; Gao's Odysseus is a nervy and compelling traveller, a sort of non-hero, itinerant and always somewhat lost. Waylaid with Gao in hotel bars and tour buses, we are estranged, sensitized as we go to the dislocations and non-belonging of children of the world's diasporas, and also to the structures of appropriation and exploitation embedded in travel. We are all conditioned and implicated; but perhaps this acute and attentive Odysseus is exactly who we need to help us listen to the buried histories of Imperialism, to "wait a little differently, mourn a / little more".'
Fiona Benson 'These poems reject the heroism of the legible "I". If a central figure emerges it might be that of the Anti-Translator, not there to disclose personal information but to reveal the bareness of our "corpse-lives". Jay Gao's Imperium marks a new chapter in British poetry, bringing to bear a new complexity, richness of thought and influence.'
Will Harris 'This is an elaborately resourceful book, driven by a wittily self-conscious and politically savvy comic brio, satirical about its staging of its very counter-imperial animus, a powerful and febrile text.'
Adam Piette, Blackbox Manifold 'A prodigiously assured new voice... This rich hinterland of knowledge is never fusty, always alive.'
Fiona Sampson, The Guardian 'An askance and enthralling book.'
Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman 'Bold and ambitious, Jay Gao's Imperium demonstrates the eruption of a singular voice and wit... Gao's debut emerges as an unforgettable read in these changing and pluralistic times.'
Shalini Sengupta, Poetry School 'With astonishing virtuosity, Imperium unpicks the very notion of virtuosity, and excellence, the inheritances of empire that dominate any idea of what poetry might be or aspire to be. Gao's talent sings and singes so heroically and deliciously across this mournful, provocative, desirous and subversive book.'
Colin Herd, Gutter Mag
