Thursday, June 24, 2021
K-Ming Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree.
She is the author of the New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice novel Bestiary, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award.
Told from the point of view of Daughter, a Taiwanese American early-adolescence girl, Bestiary threads together three generations of women with each other, land, water, trauma, violence, and love.
Podcast host Matthew Felix asked K-Ming about her interest in inter-generational bonds, including the trauma that can sometimes come with them.
K-Ming shared the unique way in which Bestiary—the writing process for which was initially very fragmented—came together as a cohesive whole.
Matthew and K-Ming discussed language, from the influences of knowing other languages when writing in English to not shying away from possibly unpleasant physiological terms to how writing poetry can influence prose.
Matthew asked K-Ming about how she accesses her imagination and her apparent ability to surrender to it.
K-Ming discussed some of the key themes in Bestiary, including the cost of having a body and the tiger tail that the protagonist grows.
K-Ming explained her inclusion of multiple queer love stories in Bestiary, and she shared some of the queer writers that have influenced her and her writing.
Bestiary is now out in paperback.
Podcast editing and episode notes by author and podcast producer and host Matthew Félix (matthewfelix.com).
The San Francisco Writers Conference and the San Francisco Writing for Change conference are both produced by the San Francisco Writers Conference & San Francisco Writers Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. The SFWC Director is Laurie McLean. For registration help, contact Richard Santos at registrations@sfwriters.org. For SFWC sponsorship opportunities, contact Carla King at Carla@carlaking.com.
The SFWC website is: www.SFWriters.org