Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Replica by Lisa Low, which will be published on March 24th, 2026 by the University of Wisconsin Press. You can pre-order your copy here.
Stand-up comedy, a celebrity non-apology, observations of racism, and the slipperiness of nostalgia underpin Replica. In poignant, witty poems, Lisa Low navigates the tensions of solidarity and hostility in white spaces as she sets out to write differently about race.
“The problem of being with a white man is also a problem of writing,” Low states in a prose poem that turns writing about identity on its head. She peers in from the outside, as if through an open ceiling: “Like any good girl, / I became good / at watching myself.” The poem itself becomes a site of investigation, reimagined as a dollhouse, a stage with props, an image the speaker wears like a bodysuit. These powerful and direct poems offer a counterpoint to constricting narratives about Asian American identity.
Sure to appeal to readers of Monica Youn and Claudia Rankine, Replica asks what it means to represent yourself and your experiences in a world where you are indistinguishable from the others.
Here is the cover, designed by adam bohannon, with original artwork by Yuqing Zhu:
Lisa Low: While searching for cover art, I stumbled on an old listing for a workshop led by Yuqing Zhu in 2021 in Chicago. I immediately loved the description—“Yuqing Zhu creates self-portrait collages to uncover a personal mythology, channeling her family’s past into an allegory to the future”—and all of her work I found online. Even though the workshop probably showed up in my searches because I live in Chicago myself, the geographical connection made it all feel a little meant to be.
I love Zhu’s “Celadon, Porcelain” and how it makes self-representation playful, surreal, even wistful, yet also an act of strength—mixed feelings that I also want to convey in my poems. In Replica, sidestepping readers’ racial expectations while writing about yourself becomes an impossible task. This alternative self-portrait—the jade green that makes me think of sickness (nausea, envy) and alienation, the nod to blue-and-white ceramics like dishes I grew up using, the open mouth—accomplishes so much of what I hope to do in Replica in creating new ways to be seen. I absolutely love the scale and off-centeredness in adam bohannon’s design that also adds to the tension. I’m so grateful to both Yuqing and adam for this cover that contextualizes my book!
adam bohannon: well, what a gift to be presented with the piece of art we’re using for the cover. i kinda couldn’t stop staring at it, which is always a good sign. several ideas immediately presented themselves. and the path to the final design was pretty quick, which i think is thanks to the fabulous art. like a lot of things in life, less seemed like more: simple type, work the color palette, enjoy the directness and intrigue of the one-word title.
i’m so happy that we went with the added visual hook of having our title type peek out + wrap around the art!
one of my favorite designs ever. and one of the happiest journeys.
Yuqing Zhu: I completed this piece, “Celadon, Porcelain,” back in 2017 when I was just a college student beginning on her artistic journey. I never imagined it would receive a second life on the cover of a poetry collection, and I’m so deeply grateful to Lisa for selecting it. Like most of my work, this piece is a self-portrait that taps into my cultural heritage. The title and imagery reference the two most enduring forms of earthenware originating in China — celadon, which is glazed in a jade green color, and blue-and-white painted porcelain. I adore how bowls and other vessels are means of asking for and receiving, and also of offering. Here I depict myself as a vessel with the capacity to hold anything the world has to give and also perhaps offer something in return.
