Chen Chen is an award-winning poet based in the United States. In this episode, he talks about the composition, editing, re-editing (and re-editing), process of his poem 'Nature Poem' published in his debut National Book award longlisted collection When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017 and Bloodaxe Books, 2019). On apocalyptic pineapples, giving yourself permission, and what writers can learn from Marie Kondo.
'Sometimes you have to make mistakes, you have to allow yourself to go on tangents, on little side adventures ... and then return home.'
Craft is brought to you by Wasafiri, the magazine of international contemporary writing and Queen Mary University of London with funding from Arts Council England. Check out www.wasafiri.org for outtakes from this interview that didn't (quite) make the final cut, and much more from writers from all over the world.
Chen's forthcoming book is Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (2022).
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