Moonlight Rests in My Left Palm

Starting with the viral poem Crossing Half of China to Fuck You, Yu Xiuhua's raw collection chronicles her life as a disabled, divorced, single mother in rural China.Yu Xiuhua was born with cerebral palsy in Hengdian village, Hubei Province, in Central China. Unable to attend college, travel, or work the land with her parents, Yu remained home where she could help with housework. Eventually she was forced into an arranged marriage that became abusive. She divorced her husband and moved back in with her parents, taking her son with her.In defiance of the stigma attached to her disability, her status as a divorced single mother, and as a peasant in rural China, Yu found her voice in poetry. Starting in the late '90s, from her home, her writing became a vehicle with which to explore and share her reflections on homesickness, family and ancestry, the reality of disability in the context of a body's urges and desires and the requirements of manual labor, in addition to the pacing and passing of time in a rural community beholden to the seasons, and the granular beauty and cruelty of nature as it infuses every moment in the pastoral landscape where she lives.