“Sok’s reflective debut teases out how the trauma of the Khmer Rouge is remembered and retained in the fabric of the country and within her own family… Weaving the threads of her family’s stories, history, place, and identity, these poems glimmer with strength and presence.”
―Publishers Weekly
“...an unflinching look at the Cambodian genocide in the 1970s.”
― Poets & Writers
“An unsettling, powerful, important debut.” ―Booklist
“Sok never lets up, her detailed sense creating almost constant suspense and tension in this collection. A significant new voice.” ―The Millions
“Sok honors [her elders] here with the acute, protective tenderness of her gaze, the risks she takes in imagining her way into their lives.” ―Literary Hub
“The poet is able to offer quiet wisdom without sentimentality. Ultimately this poet refuses to surrender to victimhood… She has found her way to ‘the healing fields.’” ―Marilyn Chin
“Through poetry, Monica Sok processes her family’s experiences of the Khmer Rouge, immigration and the Cambodian diaspora with mythical, tender reflection.” ―Ms. Magazine
“In this stunning book, Sok’s speaker explores a broad range of poetic forms… This collection is grounded by striking imagery that moves between past and present, allowing both the speaker and the audience to construct memory—and with these constructions, we get the full confrontation the collection embodies.” ―Split Lip Magazine
“Sok masterfully weaves together the skeins of narratives left fragmented by the legacy of war, trauma, and diaspora with a skillful hand, moving fluidly between past and present; Cambodia and Pennsylvania. Together, the poems in this debut collection comprise a whole cloth that is by turns tender and unflinching…” ―Lantern Review
“Sok weaves together a remarkable collection wrought with memories of those who are alive but not living and those who are dead but not yet gone.” ―New York Journal of Books
“Her voice is clear and determined; though she looks for agency, she never overestimates our capacity to change everything.” ―Rhino
“What is made in the material world comes from deep within you, Sok asks us to believe. Grief, love, and the body are manifested in hand-woven silks. It is these hands that gently hold mothers, aunts, daughters…”
―The Rumpus
“The poems intertwine reveries, memories and historical perspectives on being an insider-outsider.” ―Asian Review of Books
“The assembled stories in A Nail the Evening Hangs On offer us a continuum of mass loss, as it also offers the grief and power of resilience.” ―Pleiades
“A Nail the Evening Hangs On is a reclamation.” ―Book Riot
“Sok refocuses the lens of history onto the human, reminding us that, after all, the human is what history is about.” ―Stanford Daily