Poet Truong Tran [p.4]

TT: Home for me is that place just beyond reach. It is that place that you cannot return to. It is that place that was once so hopeful and full of possibilities. It is the existence of neither here nor there. Home is the desire to connect to that one family member that has forever been severed. Home is the naive projections of the self’s desire upon the other. Also home is a mental space. It’s that box that we construct for ourselves. In my visual art, I’m trying to constantly inhabit space within the box. The home is the same, maybe not as physical but [it’s] the same idea of what is in the interior.

NHA: How does the idea of the box connect back to your poetry?

TT: I love boxes. I should say that my box project is about being able to hide things in plain sight. There is the external of the box and there is what is inside. Even though you the viewer open up the box and are able to see directly in the box, there’s still some stuff hiding. It’s the same with poetry. You think you see what you see. I’m a big believer in hidden stories and secrets, ones that I will keep hidden and take to my grave. But on the flip side of that coin, because there is something hidden, it really challenges the reader to take a very active engagement with the work because you’re going to have to construct your own story somewhere between the space of that box.

NHA: What do you like to do during your free time?

TT: I look for junk. It has to do with my box theory. I find boxes everywhere. I wander around the city looking for objects and I re-envision those objects. I love the flea market in Alameda. There’s an entire world within that space.

NHA: What’s the most interesting item that you’ve come across?

TT: I found this sphere that had been quarried out and there’s a ball that rotates around it. I put a poem on the ball and the poem rotates around the sphere.

NHA: Describe your typical week.

TT: Monday through Thursday, I get up and go right to the task of teaching. Teaching is really an eight-hour process. From the moment you get up, you think about how to articulate your points and how to connect with students. I’m always exhausted by the end of class. Fridays are my day off and I wander around my neighborhood and inevitably I find more junk to bring home.

NHA: How did you first start teaching? What motivated you to become a teacher?

TT: I used to work in the dot.com and to keep myself connected with the writing world, I would give lectures to colleagues. So I did that for a few years just to keep myself connected. When the dot.com world came to an end, I became a greeting card writer. Then some big name greeting card company took my company over and they wanted me to move to the Midwest. As a Vietnamese gay man moving to the Midwest, it didn’t jive. I knew I enjoyed being around other writers so I decided I wanted to teach. Now I teach everything from kindergarteners to high school students to graduate students. All have the capacity to engage with you in the craft of writing. Some of the best poems come from these 6- or 7-year-olds.

NHA: What are you working on now? Any future plans and goals?

TT: I’m writing still. With each progressive piece that I work on, I try to push the form even more. I try to push behind the notion of a “book”. Part of my latest book involves writing in the spine of the book so one has to pull the book apart and read it. In order to find meaning, one must break apart the book. Also I’m working with the idea of my words and ideas inhabiting the space of boxes. I just finished my correspondence with Wanda Coleman that commemorates the 100-year anniversary of Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. I’m also still teaching. I find the two main things are to teach and to create.