{"id":8700,"date":"2021-01-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/?p=8700"},"modified":"2021-01-22T10:43:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-22T18:43:20","slug":"six-questions-for-2021-guest-editor-eugenia-leigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/29\/six-questions-for-2021-guest-editor-eugenia-leigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Questions for 2021 Guest Editor Eugenia Leigh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Photograph<\/a>
2021 Guest Editor Eugenia Leigh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This season, we\u2019re privileged to welcome <\/em>Eugenia Leigh<\/em><\/a> to our team as guest editor. Eugenia is the author of<\/em> Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows<\/em><\/a> (Four Way Books, 2014) and the recipient of fellowships and awards from <\/em>Poets & Writers magazine, Kundiman, <\/em>Rattle, and elsewhere. She\u2019s previously served as poetry editor at <\/em>Kartika Review and <\/em>Hyphen magazine, and she\u2019s also a past contributor to <\/em>the magazine<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>the blog<\/em><\/a> here at <\/em>Lantern Review. As Eugenia will be working closely with us to curate and produce the magazine this season, we thought we\u2019d take a minute to help you get to know her. Read on to learn about some of her favorite reads of 2020, the Word document she keeps on her desktop for inspiration, what \u201cAsian American futures\u201d means to her, and more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LANTERN REVIEW: <\/strong>How did you come to poetry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EUGENIA LEIGH: <\/strong>Like many children from dysfunctional, abusive homes, I was taught to lie about my life as a child. Given that my parents were also pursuing ministry work in Korean Christian churches, the lying was even more imperative to maintain the illusion of our nice family. This made for a pretty lonely childhood. In junior high, an English teacher gave us the assignment to adopt a poet of our choosing, create a report, and recite one of their poems from memory for the class. I chose Anne Sexton randomly with no knowledge of who she was, and I recited a posthumously published poem, \u201cRed Roses\u201d\u2014a poem about child abuse, thinly veiled. I still remember reciting this poem to the class and feeling the electricity of being able to tell at least one small truth in this artful way. After discovering Anne Sexton and the confessional poets, I often turned toward poetry to process and work through a lot of my ongoing childhood trauma during my teenage years. I\u2019ve grown comfortable admitting that before poetry became an \u201cartistic pursuit,\u201d poetry was first an important coping mechanism and survival tool for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR: <\/strong>What\u2019s something you wish you had known when you were just starting out as a writer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EL: <\/strong>When I was a senior at UCLA, a dear older white male poet announced to our poetry workshop\u2014after critiquing one of my poems\u2014that \u201cif you\u2019re forty and you\u2019re a poet, then you\u2019re a poet. But if you\u2019re twenty and you\u2019re a poet, you\u2019re just twenty.\u201d I\u2019m nearly forty now, and I can still recall the humiliation of that statement, which stayed with me longer than it should have. When I was starting out as a writer, I wish I\u2019d known to block out the many toxic voices I allowed into my ever-anxious, ever-insecure mind. I wish I\u2019d believed in myself and in my writing, and I wish I\u2019d applied for every chance to learn, grow, and showcase my work. I wish I\u2019d had Michelle Obama<\/a>\u2019s voice to quiet my imposter syndrome by saying, \u201cI have been at probably every powerful table that you can think of, I have worked at nonprofits, I have been at foundations, I have worked in corporations, served on corporate boards, I have been at G-summits, I have sat in at the UN; they are not that smart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR: <\/strong>What interests or obsessions are driving your work right now?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EL: <\/strong>A few years ago, I was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder and complex PTSD, and this has fueled a new interest in the ways mental illness intersects with intergenerational trauma, especially within Asian American (and more specifically, Korean American) families. As a new parent, I\u2019m also interested in narratives that upend the curated, Instagrammable stories of parenthood and have been a little hellbent on putting the uglier bits of this life into my newer poems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR:<\/strong> What are some of your favorite poetry collections of the moment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EL: <\/strong>A few favorite poetry collections from 2020 that I can\u2019t stop thinking about or recommending to people: John Murillo\u2019s Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry<\/em><\/a>, Leila Chatti\u2019s Deluge<\/em><\/a>, Yona Harvey\u2019s You Don\u2019t Have to Go to Mars for Love<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>and Choi Seungja\u2019s Phone Bells Keep Ringing for Me<\/em><\/a> <\/em>(translated by Won-Chung Kim and Cathy Park Hong). I\u2019m also pretty obsessed with these 2020 nonfiction books by Korean American poets: Cathy Park Hong\u2019s Minor Feelings<\/em><\/a> and E. J. Koh\u2019s The Magical Language of Others<\/em><\/a>\u2014both of which made me cry multiple times. I feel actual gratitude<\/em> that all these books are out in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR: <\/strong>What\u2019s one writing ritual or self-care practice that helps sustain you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EL: <\/strong>I keep a Word document on my desktop called \u201cAnthology of Quotes\u201d\u2014an ongoing collection of inspirational quotes to keep me going when I want to quit. I read through it when I feel unable to continue writing. A lot of Audre Lorde in there, some philosophers, even some from contemporary actors or anonymous quotes floating around Instagram. And one Bible verse (though I\u2019ve completely forgotten its context now): \u201cThey were all trying to frighten us, thinking, \u2018Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.\u2019 But I prayed, \u2018Now strengthen my hands\u2019\u201d (from the book of Nehemiah, chapter 6, verse 9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LR: <\/strong>In keeping with this season\u2019s theme<\/a>, what does \u201cAsian American futures\u201d mean to you?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EL: <\/strong>When I think of \u201cAsian American futures,\u201d I imagine new generations of Asian American poets putting to paper what our parents, grandparents, and ancestors could never bring themselves to say. I envision poetry that refuses to wait around for permission. Poetry with an urgency that matches the times. Poetry that cost the poet something to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

We hope you’ll join us in welcoming Eugenia to our editorial team for the season! For more from her, check out her website<\/a>\u2014or head on over to read our <\/em>previous interview<\/em><\/a> with her<\/em>, right here on the <\/em>LR blog.<\/em> (And don’t forget to send us your own takes on “Asian American futures”<\/a>! Our regular open submissions period<\/em> closes on February 11th.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

\u00a0Yona Harvey, You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love<\/em><\/a><\/strong> (Four Way Books, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please consider supporting an indie bookstore with your purchase.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an Asian American\u2013focused publication, Lantern Review<\/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-Asian-American-identified BIPOC poet in each blog post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This season, we\u2019re privileged to welcome Eugenia Leigh to our team as guest editor. Eugenia is the author of Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, 2014) and the recipient of fellowships and awards from Poets & Writers magazine, Kundiman, Rattle, and elsewhere. She\u2019s previously served as poetry editor at Kartika Review and Hyphen magazine, […]<\/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":[1359,1360,1056,408],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8700"}],"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=8700"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8708,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8700\/revisions\/8708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lanternreview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}