1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
I’m no longer embarrassed or (shy) to say to call myself a writer. It also gave me a “You can do it” sort of mentality. I think my most recent work is less artsy. Maybe more honest.
2 - How did you come to poetry first, as opposed to, say, fiction or nonfiction?
It just sort of happened. I find poetry easier because I don’t really worry about the direction of the poem; I look up and it’s done.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
i cut my tongue on a broken country technically took around six months to write, but I’d been writing a poetry collection, just not this one, for closer to three years. For me, the hard part seems to be getting started so I intentionally don’t plan the project indepthly so as not to overwhelm myself. Once I start, though, I get a bunch of new ideas so the whole thing changes pretty dramatically and I somewhat re-start.
I usually write my first draft for a poem in one sitting, and then I’ll take another sitting to rewrite the poem. After that, it is basically in its final form. I am not much of a meticulous editor; I’ve tried becoming one but it turns out my original instincts are usually better.
4 - Where does a poem usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
I started working on a book from the very beginning when I started writing in grade 8. At least for now, I think I need something collective to work toward. Usually a poem starts for me as an individual line or image or multiple individual lines/images combined together.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I enjoy doing readings. I pay a lot of attention to the taste of a poem so I constantly read a poem out loud while working on it. Public readings used to make me slightly uncomfortable because I was always operating under the assumption that no one wanted to hear my reading, and they were just waiting for me to finish. I am in the process of getting over that, or maybe I give less shits now, so I’ve definitely been enjoying readings more.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
Why?
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
Like many writers, I worry that writing is not the best use of my resources and time in the goal of leaving the world a better place than I found it. But I also feel like it’s the best I can do. This is what I’m supposed to do & I’m giving it my best shot. I don’t believe there is a particular role that a writer should fulfill—maybe writers just exist as a testament to our ability to imagine and listen.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
Both! Not difficult in a negative sense, just difficult because they help you become honest with yourself and your work, which may be unpleasant but is also a critical part of writing. i cut my tongue on a broken country wouldn’t be the book it is right now if it hadn’t been for my editor Natalie Wee.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
Make it happen.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I have no writing routine, which might be because I’m a full time student. When I was writing the book as a sophomore in high school, I tried to write a poem a day. But I don’t have a particular routine for now because that seems to add unnecessary stress to what should be joyful.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
Life. But recently, Crush by Richard Siken.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Swiffer Sweeper wet mopping pads
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Ren Hang’s collection of photos of people in lotus ponds influenced this collection, as did several paintings from different impressionist painters. A couple poems in the collection were inspired by physics and chemistry lessons. But I am most often inspired by nature. I like beginning a poem inside a place.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
Night Sky with Exit Wounds probably changed my life. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is what got me into writing a book. I think about A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara at least once a week.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Write a novel. Sky dive. Feel so comfortable in my body.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I kind of want to live in a cottage and pick fruits to sustain myself. But I have a strange feeling that if I hadn’t become a writer I would have tried to end up in a corporate office in a Big City.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
When I started writing, I almost immediately started getting external validation for it. Of course, that is no longer the only reason that I write, but I don’t know if I would have continued writing if people didn’t tell me I was good at it.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Last great book: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Last great film: Jojo Rabbit directed by Taika Waititi
19 - What are you currently working on?
A potential fiction book. School. Trying not to lose myself.
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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