Katarina Marčeta Reviews Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House by Katerina Stoykova

Katerina Stoykova is an author, editor, teacher, and translator from Bulgaria. She immigrated to the United States in 1995, publishing several poetry books in English and Bulgarian since her arrival. Her book Second Skin was awarded a grant from the European Commission to be translated and published in English. In 2010 she launched an independent literary press, Accents Publishing.

Between a Bird Cage and a Bird House (University Press of Kentucky) is available for purchase here.

Between a Bird Cage and Bird House cleverly describes the immigrant experience coupled with the diaspora identity of being stuck between two worlds. Through her collection of poems, Katerina Stoykova employs her own trials and ordeals as a Bulgarian immigrant into two sections titled “A” and “B” respectively. Stoykova portrays the immigrant identity in a touching, heartfelt fashion as she traverses the emotions and intensity of leaving behind pieces of oneself and one’s old life for new beginnings while learning how to survive in different territory.

In section “A” of the collection, Stoykova recounts her memories of immigrating and discovering aspects of identity unfamiliar to her, while specifically dissecting the struggle to find yourself and the longing and yearning that come with leaving all that you have ever known behind. She brilliantly manipulates her poems into a style vaguely reminiscent of a love letter, written to America and revealing her deepest feelings and concerns. In a sense, America has the privilege to see both parts of Stoykova, as she changes into a person her native country, Bulgaria, no longer recognizes. Stoykova zeroes in on the unspoken of, unheard of, negative details. In “America, what do you hide”, she unleashes an inkling of this bleakness:

America, what do you hide
in that bag of marbles?

The ache of every immigrant
to go back?

Ah, but you know
what it’s like.

In “Visit,”  Stoykova examines this newfound feeling in a heart-wrenching line, writing, “I visit my homeland the way a snail/ tries to fit back into his old shell.” She juxtaposes the English words for snail and love with the Bulgarian translations, охлюв and любов respectively, unveiling the irony of their similar sound. With “America, you watched me change,” Stoykova considers the difficulties of making a life for oneself in the United States, of the reality of using the privilege and freedom the country offers:

America, you watched me change.
You gave me a hand

and a hand
and a hand.

You gave me everything 
I asked for, 

and I gave you
twenty years in exchange.

She continues this spiel of emotions, outlining the wrestle of coming to terms with the harshness of the American dream and the surrender and sacrifice for a better life. Stoykova unveils the actuality of the matter, of everything in between, in “America, if your eyes are dry”, where she writes:

America, if your eyes are dry
you never loved me.

Yes, you gave,
but I sacrificed.

As “A” comes to an end, Stoykova releases a moment of complete and utter catharsis, an understanding of who she was and is. She forges an acceptance between her two countries, choosing to accept the freedom of her new birdhouse while coming to terms with the confinement of her birdcage. We see this in “America, now I know”:

America, now I know.

You are my home
away from home.
My life
away from my life.

In section “B,” Stoykova outlines her experience in the style of a theorem, complete with poems she titles “Proof,” “Conclusion,” “Alternate Ending,” and “Alternate Conclusion.” She states a thesis, that “America is the greatest country in the world” and continues with narrating the life of an American man as he purchases mail-order brides over and over, sending them back once he has no use for them. In “Alternate Ending,” she depicts the survival of one bride, “more resilient than the rest,” as she pushes through troubles and difficulties and makes something for herself. With this set of poems, Stoykova successfully exhibits the immigrant experience of overcoming struggles and creating the better life they so much crave for themselves, of “seeing what your country can do for you.”

Stoykova’s memoir-esque collection of poems is an eye-opening, enlightening examination of the immigrant identity and the subsequent struggle to find a place for yourself. She highlights the longing of one’s roots and the sacrifice for a new start. Her poetry symbolically compares the immigrant feeling of being stuck between new beginnings and your native land to the freedom of living in a birdhouse or being confined within a birdcage. She reminds readers that they have the ability to spread their own wings and take flight.

Katarina Marčeta is an undergraduate student at Arizona State University studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing and minoring in Slavic Studies. An Arizona native, most of her work includes fiction and poetry, with a background in editing and journalism. When she isn't writing, she can be found planning her next trip abroad or discovering new novels to read.