This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with poet Victoria Chang, author of With My Back to the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a collection that engages with the paintings and writings of celebrated abstract artist Agnes Martin. This book explores the nature of the self, something Martin herself explored expansively through painting, and Victoria adds to a growing list of books in conversation with Martin’s work, including the poets Brian Teare and Lauren Camp. Victoria is no stranger to working within some of poetry’s restrictive form and ultimately finds creative and emotional freedom in Martin’s grids and squares, writing not only ekphrastic poetry for this new collection but allowing visual art and poetic erasures to sit alongside her text.
About Victoria:
Victoria Chang’s previous book of poetry is The Trees Witness Everything (Copper Canyon Press, 2022). Her non-fiction book, Dear Memory (Milkweed Editions), was published in 2021. OBIT (Copper Canyon Press, 2020) received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. Victoria has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Chowdhury Prize in Literature.
Victoria Chang recommends:
Poem Bitten by a Man by Brian Teare (Nightboat Books)
Lorine Niedecker: Collected Works edited by Jenny Penberthy (University of California Press)
The Silk Dragon II: Translations of Chinese Poetry edited Arthur Sze (Copper Canyon Press)
Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return by CAConrad (Wave Poetry)
Lauren Korn recommends:
With My Back to the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief (Milkweed Editions), and OBIT (Copper Canyon Press)
The Empty Form Goes All the Way to Heaven (originally published by Ahsahta Press, reprinted by Nightboat Books) and Poem Bitten by a Man (Nightboat Books) by Brian Teare
An Eye in Each Square by Lauren Camp (River River Press)
The Cloud Path by Melissa Kwasny (Milkweed Editions)
Grief Sequence by Prageeta Sharma (Wave Poetry)
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer, editor, and sound engineer. This episode is sponsored by Elk River Books in Livingston, Montana, offering new, used, and rare books—and frequent author readings in their line-up of events offered each season. A full events calendar and online shopping can be found at ElkRiverBooks.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
