Excerpts from
C O R P S E _ W A T C H I N G
by Sarith Peou  • 2007   $12
Forward by Ed Bok Lee
Designed by Lian Litvin

from “My Sister Ranchana”:

Mee was the name of the cadre who mistreated Rachany.
I named my new dog Mee.
I abused that dog.
I killed and ate it.
A few months later
Mee died from delivery complications.
I thought my curse had worked.
Now I feel guilty for misplacing my anger on my
poor dog.

Born in 1962, Sarith Peou is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide (1975-1979) in which more than one quarter of the Cambodian population was killed. In 1982, Sarith fled to a refugee camp in Thailand. In 1987, he resettled in southern California, and, in 1993, he moved to Minnesota. He is now serving prison time in Minnesota. While incarcerated, he converted to Christianity, and earned a GED and an Associate of Arts degree. He has dedicated his life to education, and moral and spiritual transformation within the prison. He is completing his autobiography, tentatively titled Prison Without Walls.

Ed Bok Lee is the author of Real Karaoke People, winner of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and Asian American Literary Award (Members’ Choice Award).

Review by Laura Moriarty
Review by Barbara Jane Reyes
review by Philip Metres

Translations into Vietnamese by Linh Dinh 1 2