Let the Moon Wobble

In poems born of intense loneliness, grief, anger, and uncertainty at a convergence of apocalypses: a raging pandemic, a worsening climate crisis, and numerous global uprisings, Ally Ang’s Let the Moon Wobble asks and seeks to answer the question: What makes the end of the world worth surviving?

Let the Moon Wobble considers multiple speakers’ journeys through the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and the rise of fascism. With humor, lyricism, and endearing absurdity, Ang uses varied forms and poetic traditions to process feelings of helplessness and uncertainty. These poems ache for connection and lineage in a time of unrelenting isolation, plumbing the depths of grief and rage against the systems and institutions that aim to repress and kill queer people of color.

Coursing through Let the Moon Wobble is the deep desire for wildness, freedom from convention and constraint, and to be seen. The speaker refuses erasure, often taking up so much space that they’re impossible to ignore. Ultimately, we arrive at a place of hope and possibility where what’s ＂freshly broken＂ can give way to blooming. Ang’s debut is a testament to the ways queer joy and community can fuel resistance and allow us to imagine radical new ways of being.

Ally Ang is a gaysian poet & editor based in Seattle, WA. Their work has appeared in The Rumpus, Muzzle Magazine, ANMLY, and elsewhere. Ang is a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and MacDowell fellow. Their debut poetry collection, Let the Moon Wobble, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2025. Find them at allysonang.com or on Twitter and Instagram @TheOceanIsGay.