An interview with Victoria Chang (Poetry ’05)

The Rumpus recently interviewed poetry graduate Victoria Chang about her latest collection, Obit. Read an excerpt below:

The Rumpus: Obit got deep really quickly! I would say it’s a book about grieving.

Victoria Chang: Yes, although it’s not about one specific kind of grieving. I wanted to describe how awful a person can feel in the process of any kind of grieving. Putting words to that depth of pain, and breadth of pain, and a pain that is so unidentifiable, that doesn’t want to be snatched or grabbed or touched. In essence, I think, in hindsight, I tried to distill grief and give language to something I knew would be impossible to describe. Ultimately, I think I failed, because I don’t think grief can be described. I think, in retrospect, it was a challenge to see if it could be done anyway.

Rumpus: How did you get the idea to put obituary poems into a collection?

Chang: I just started writing them once the idea of writing one popped into my head. I wrote one, then another, then another, and another, and just kept on going for two weeks straight. I hardly ate, hardly slept, and hardly spoke to anyone….

Read the rest of the interview here: https://therumpus.net/2020/04/the-rumpus-interview-with-victoria-chang-2/