Slow Stories27 Jun 2024

Victoria Chang — "It takes a lot of energy to be slow."

"Point of view has a terrible memory. I've looked at photos scrolling up and over, zooming in and out, and realize it is not love I want, just the ability to zoom back out. A woman loses herself when she can no longer zoom out." This is one of the many resonant passages readers will encounter in Victoria Chang's latest poetry collection, With My Back to the World. Across three parts, Victoria engages with the work of renowned artist Agnes Martin, who ultimately provides a portal for the writer to consider identity, existence, death, grief, depression, and time.

While these themes may be universal, Victoria's voice is singular. Page after page, her passion for language becomes all the more apparent. As she writes in "Gratitude, 2001": "What am I outside of language? Is this the solitude Agnes spoke of—standing in an auditorium without a microphone or an audience, at a podium reading wind. And where the skin that has been wound tightly around me my whole life, is also the thing that I've been writing on. To think, everyone will write one final word."

In this interview, Victoria shared more about her relationship with process and pace, the nuances of writing and publishing in this day and age, and what she's learned as an artist, educator, and mother. This episode also opens with a story from Amy Lin.

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Episode Transcript: https://slowstoriespodcast.com/victoria-chang

Follow Slow Stories on Substack: https://slowstories.substack.com/

Purchase With My Back to the World: https://bookshop.org/p/books/with-my-back-to-the-world-poems-victoria-chang/19994823

Learn more about Victoria's work: https://victoriachangpoet.com/

Follow Victoria: @fattery12

Follow Amy: @literaryamy

Follow Rachel: @rachelschwartzmann

Pre-order SLOWING: https://bookshop.org/p/books/slowing-discover-wonder-beauty-and-creativity-through-slow-living-rachel-schwartzmann/21201888?ean=9781797223759

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