SmokeLong Quarterly

In “I See You,” you explore sight and being seen by loved ones. Is this a theme you have explored or want to explore more in your fiction?

I have written a couple of stories about a blind father, but this particular piece deals with both the physical blindness of the father and not being seen by loved ones. I would think that I’d like to continue writing more about this character.

What motivated your decision to focus this story on a father-child relationship? Did this also influence your decision to spend more time with concrete descriptions and Ah Ba’s reactions, rather than your narrator’s own reactions and thoughts?

Ha! I’ve written a lot of stories about mother-daughter relationships, so I think it’s fair that I should dedicate some of my work to writing about a father-child relationship. Joking aside, I grew up with a father who was blind, and knowing how life must have been so difficult for him, it is very painful for me to write about my father, who’s truly a hero for living his life as normally as you and I would, despite his loss of eyesight. Fictionalizing his life, making this father-character come alive in my stories, is my way of honoring him and processing my grief of having lost him.

I didn’t even notice that the story has more concrete descriptions than the narrator’s reactions. I did not consciously decide to write more descriptions, rather than showing the narrator’s own reactions and thoughts. It was one of those instances where the story wanted to be told that way, and I followed!

Your writing often centers around familial relationships. What about these family connections interests you most as a writer?

I think as a writer, we like to observe people and how they interact with each other and to think about how their actions might surprise us, how their actions or reactions might differ from our own. For me, family connections are a treasure trove of material to build stories on because of the spectrum of the various personalities, and values, and behaviors.

Are there certain themes or images you’re repeatedly drawn to when writing about familial relationships?

Yes, I’m drawn to writing about fraught parental relationships born out of guilt, generational and cultural gaps, parental expectations, and traumas that pass on to later generations, so those are my usual themes.

You write both flash fiction and prose poetry. Are there any thematic elements or aspects of your writing you explore more commonly in your fiction rather than your poetry, or you think are better suited for your fiction?

Great question! Also, tough question, ha! I stumbled into prose poetry before I even knew what prose poetry was. I don’t think I’ve ever consciously decided that what I was going to write is going to be prose poetry or a fictional story. I think of prose poetry as a piece with lyrical and rhythmic language that doesn’t necessarily have a plot or a shift in the character, and that can be read like a musing of sorts, or a chant, whereas, to me, a flash or micro story has to have some sort of a shift, however subtle, in the character or from the reader’s point of view. To me, the line between prose poetry and fiction is not always so clear-cut, so the answer is no, I don’t think that there are any themes that are better suited for my fiction rather than prose poetry.