Really appreciated this conversation between Destiny O. Birdsong and VS podcast hosts Franny Choi and Danez Smith.
They talk about:
- stretching your writing and your self to be stronger, so that the nuances and complexities of multiple feelings can exist alongside each other without cancelling each other out. (writing her book of poems negotiations: room for rage and tenderness and pleasure in negotiating sexuality and sexual violence)
- how the poem / book can be smarter than you
- a trust in trying
- the ‘mineness’ of the writing while you’re writing it. later you get to decide what you do with it, and how, but when you’re writing: it’s yours
- how writing is hard work and takes a physical toll. she talks about how after edits for her novel nobody’s magic, she would sleep for days.
Christina Tran's Blog 