Amphibian Poems

By: Joseph O. Legaspi

Published by Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press, 2026

Exploring queerness, belonging, and the meaning of home through the lens of a Filipino American

How does a queer brown body move through the American panorama? In Amphibian, Joseph O. Legaspi explores the metaphor of "amphibious living"--adapting, surviving, and flourishing in varying geographies--as it pertains to immigrants and to queerness. These poems draw on the natural world to illuminate personal experiences and, in turn, closely examine cultural, environmental, and societal constructs and concerns.

Legaspi searches in nature for evidence of the validity of his own existence, determined to declare his belonging. Dwelling in landscape as a guide into the interior, Amphibian journeys not only between earth, water, and air, but also into the past, cataloging an immigrant's departures, arrivals, and returns to native soil. This moving collection is at every turn liberating, fraught, and altered.