{"id":8534,"date":"2020-09-11T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/?p=8534"},"modified":"2020-09-10T23:41:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T06:41:19","slug":"six-questions-for-lr-editorial-intern-karen-zheng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/11\/six-questions-for-lr-editorial-intern-karen-zheng\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Questions for LR Editorial Intern Karen Zheng"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Photo
LR Editorial Intern Karen Zheng (Photo by Ray Ren)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This fall, we\u2019re privileged to welcome Karen Zheng onto the <\/em>LR team as our editorial intern! Karen is a first-generation, queer, Chinese American undergraduate student at Dartmouth College studying English and creative writing (poetry). She is interested in exploring her intersectional identity in her creative work and, in her free time, hosts and produces the podcast <\/em>Mx. Asian American<\/em><\/a>. Karen will be helping us out behind the scenes with getting Issue 8.2 ready for publication, prepping social media content, and contributing to the blog. As you\u2019ll be hearing from her from time to time, we thought we\u2019d take a minute to help you get to know her. Read on to learn about Karen\u2019s love for Ocean Vuong\u2019s and Jericho Brown\u2019s work, the activities that help her recharge when she\u2019s not studying or writing, and more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LANTERN REVIEW: <\/strong>Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you come to poetry?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KAREN ZHENG: <\/strong>\u00a0I started writing poetry in middle school. In seventh grade, we were studying Langston Hughes and Edgar Allan Poe. One of the assignments in that unit was to write our own poems. I remember we were studying Hughes\u2019s \u201cMother to Son\u201d and analyzing the crystal stair. We had to write something that was similar, using the same metaphor of stairs. After I wrote a draft and showed it to my teacher, Ms. Mickish, she told me that I had talent and encouraged me to pursue poetry further. Ever since then, I\u2019ve been writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR:<\/strong> What obsessions drive your writing and other creative work?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KZ:  <\/strong>One of my poetry professors, Vievee Francis, always talks about a poet\u2019s obsession, something that the poet always goes back to, writes about, and thinks about. For me, my obsessions lie in my Asian Americanness, queerness, and other childhood trauma that came with the intersectionality of those two identities. I also dabble in other creative work like podcasting and dancing. In my podcast, I aim to highlight others in the Asian American community as role models because I never had those growing up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR:<\/strong>\u00a0 What are your favorite poets, poems, or poetry collections of the moment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KZ: <\/strong> Ocean Vuong is my all-time favorite poet. His memoir, On Earth We\u2019re Briefly Gorgeous,<\/em> is so painfully beautiful. Other poets that I really enjoy are Danez Smith, Victoria Chang, Chen Chen, Matthew Olzmann, Terrance Hayes, Illya Kaminsky, Tyehimba Jess, and Jericho Brown. Recently, I\u2019ve been obsessed with Jericho Brown\u2019s The Tradition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR: <\/strong>Go-to karaoke song?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KZ:  <\/strong>I\u2019m actually the mic hogger at karaoke, but I usually only sing Chinese songs. I always have to sing\u300a\u5176\u5b9e\u90fd\u6ca1\u6709\u300bby \u6768\u5b97\u7eac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR:<\/strong> Self-care is so important for creatives, especially during these times! What\u2019s your favorite self-care tip?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KZ: <\/strong>\u201cRelax\u201d is probably the best tip in general. I have trouble relaxing. I get restless during breaks. Reminding myself it\u2019s okay to watch a few more episodes of a show, to journal, to draw, to color, or to space out every once in a while is crucial. Allowing myself to indulge in these activities really helps me to refuel and recharge.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR:<\/strong> Who are your APA role models? What are your hopes for the future of APA lit?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KZ: <\/strong>Honestly, there are so many role models out there. All the poets I just mentioned, those who are doing nonprofit work, entrepreneurs, fitness influencers, etc., etc. Here, I\u2019d like to talk about the Asian Hustle Network. Asian Hustle Network is a Facebook group where hustlers, young professionals, entrepreneurs, creatives, and business owners from the Asian American community can come together and share their stories. Everybody there is so inspiring. It gives me hope for the community to continue growing and changing the world. My hope for the future of APA literature is for us to break into the \u201ccanon\u201d and have APA literature be taught in schools, inspiring and influencing future generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope you\u2019ll join us in warmly welcoming Karen to the <\/em>LR team. We\u2019re excited to have her on board this semester and can\u2019t wait for you to hear more from her soon!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALSO RECOMMENDED<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cover<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the Body<\/em> by Rachel Eliza Griffiths<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Norton, 2020)
Please consider supporting a BIPOC-owned indie bookstore\u00a0with your purchase.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an APA\u2013focused publication,\u00a0Lantern Review\u00a0<\/em>stands for diversity within the literary world. In solidarity with other communities of color and in an effort to connect our readers with a wider range of voices, we recommend a different collection by a non-APA-identified BIPOC poet in each blog post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This fall, we\u2019re privileged to welcome Karen Zheng onto the LR team as our editorial intern! Karen is a first-generation, queer, Chinese American undergraduate student at Dartmouth College studying English and creative writing (poetry). She is interested in exploring her intersectional identity in her creative work and, in her free time, hosts and produces the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[1314,408],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8539,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8534\/revisions\/8539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}