SmokeLong Quarterly

Jennifer Tseng is the author of the chapbook The Passion of Woo & Isolde, winner of the Eleventh Annual Rose Metal Press Short Short Chapbook Contest, selected by Amelia Gray. Jennifer will be giving away a copy of The Passion of Woo & Isolde to the writer of the story she selects for publication during her reading week.

You’re a poet and a fiction writer. Can you talk about moving between these two forms? Do you have a favorite?

Moving between poetry and fiction is like lying on the sand in the sun until you’re really hot and then swimming in the sea and then lying on the sand in the sun until you’re really hot and then swimming in the sea and so on. Each action increases my appetite for the other; each action makes the other more pleasurable. Sometimes poetry is the sun and fiction is the sea, sometimes it’s the other way around. If I have a favorite, I keep that a secret from myself.

As far as fiction goes, what kind of story would you love to see in your queue this week?

I like intimacy, immediacy, ferocity, psychological acuity, strangeness. I care less about plot and more about meaning. Surrealism done well can be powerful. I admire stories that are highly idiosyncratic, stories that exist in a world of their own and yet are awake to the world we know, like aliens that have landed on Earth to bring us important messages. Mary Ruefle’s work comes to mind as an example.

What is something a writer could do to instantly grab your attention in a flash fiction piece?

Tell me something impossible is true. Push your “what if” to the hilt. Speak to me as if time is running out. Speak to me as if time doesn’t exist. Make me forget my life for a minute. Remind me who I am.

What is something that might make you stop reading a story?

The same things that make me walk out of movie theaters—racism, sexism, classism, exoticism, gratuitous violence—make me stop reading. Time and attention are precious, I don’t like to waste mine.

What are you working on now?

Ah, speaking of time. Honestly? Interviews, promotional pieces & events. This past week I turned in three interviews—one for the Los Angeles Review of Books, one for the Chicago Review of Books, one for Foundry—and I’ll be doing another for LitHub next month. I’m a fan of all of these sites so I’m happy to provide them with content and I’m grateful for their support. That said, I feel compelled to issue a warning to all the writers out there, perhaps especially women writers, anyone who’s been taught to give endlessly without compensation: Time is the only commodity. Guard yours well. Don’t underestimate the value of time and don’t underestimate your own value. You and your time are incredibly valuable. Elena Ferrante is no dummy.