Rachel Zucker speaks with poet, editor, teacher and former marketing consultant Victoria Chang about what writing in the third person makes possible, the liberation of formal constraints, mom-on-mom violence, how the literary community has changed over the years, how poetry finds us, shame, masks, letting poems tell you what to do, loving editing more than writing, community and difference, and the many kinds of literary and non-literary labor each of them does. They speak about Victoria’s recent book Barbie Chang and about Victoria’s forthcoming book, Obit, and so much more.
Books by Victoria Chang
Barbie Chang (Copper Canyon, 2017)
Is Mommy? (With Marla Frazee) (Beach Lane, 2015)
The Boss (McSweeney’s, 2013)
Salvinia Molesta (University of Georgia Press, 2008)
Circle (Crab Orchard/Southern Illinois University Press, 2005)
Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation (Editor) (University of Illinois Press, 2004)
Other Books and Writers Mentioned in the Episode
Chen Chen
Kristin Chang
Fatimah Asghar
Paige Lewis
Kaveh Akbar
Cathy Park Hong
Mary Ruefle
Louise Glück
Jorie Graham
Anne Carson
Terrance Hayes
Ilya Kaminsky
Other Relevant Links
Commonplace interview with Richard Siken
Commonplace interview with Ilya Kaminsky
Victoria Chang at McSweeney’s
Copper Canyon Press
Antioch University
CalArts School of Critical Studies
Episode 81: Commonplace goes to Taiwan, Part 2
Episode 80: Commonplace goes to Taiwan, Part 1
Episode 79: Christine Larusso
Episode 78: Anne Boyer
Episode 77: Tina Chang
Episode 76: Ada Limón
Episode 74: Rachel Zucker's SoundMachine
Episode 73: Jennifer Croft (Translation Series Ep. 3)
Episode 72: Ilya Kaminsky
Episode 71: Mira Jacob
Episode 70: Alicia Jo Rabins
Episode 69: Live Reading with Brown, Joseph, Meitner Parker, Pico, Tolbert, and Yanyi
Episode 68: Live Reading w/ Calvocoressi, Falkner, Gay and Mark
Episode 67: John Biewen
Episode 66: Sarah Gambito
Episode 65: Hillary Frank
Episode 64: John Keene (Translation Series, Ep. 2)
Episode 63: Juliana Spahr
Episode 62: Khadijah Queen
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