10 (or maybe 12) Questions for Bryan Thao Worra
- By Abby MacGregor
“That was the question the protagonists of the cartoon show King of the Hill asked the Lao character Kahn Souphanousinphone when he debuted on March 2, 1997—even after he’d explained where he and his family were from in elaborate detail. Twenty years later, that question continues to encapsulate Lao American refugees’ enduring frustration when explaining our journey of rebuilding to others.”
—from “‘So are you Chinese or Japanese?’”, Winter 2018 (Vol. 59, Issue 4)
Tell us about one of the first pieces you wrote.
There’s not much to tell: It began for a girl,
There was a mask, some ink, some Pagliacci,
A reference or two to the Batman and the human heart.
Didn’t get her, just a poem I still think about,
But would never share, and the rest went on from there.
What writer(s) or works have influenced the way you write now?
It would take a book in itself to note even a fraction,
But early influences, from this poet’s point of view?
Yevtushenko, Komunyakaa, Borges, Adrienne Su,
Barbara Jane Reyes, Tanikawa, Neruda, Hama, Kafka,
Heather McHugh, and old Samuel Beckett, to name a few.
Some directly, some less so.
What other professions have you worked in?
I’ve been an Ohio pizza slinger, a college computer lab aide,
A clutzy Buddhist monk on cereal-scented outskirts of Modesto,
An Asian American grant writer, a volunteer coordinator
For any number of fine causes and for one brief day,
A very, very bad sign maker.
What did you want to be when you were young?
Not young. The foolishness and fumbling of youth
Never held much romance to me, and I was often
Frustrated that the wisdom I expected of myself
Seemed so distant for far too many Summer days.
I had the fortune to know I’d be a writer early,
With various odd jobs stuffed between books.
What inspired you to write this piece?
45 years in America there were fewer than 40 books
In our own words, on our own terms, whether prose
Or poetry, memoir, or children’s stories, to say nothing
Of histories among refugees who changed so much.
Yet every ocean must begin with a single drop.
A single line can transform worlds with a lead, a clue,
A dare to say: Study this. Create. Let there be Lao.
Is there a city or place, real or imagined, that influences your writing?
“Home,” perhaps, after decades in diaspora.
“Laos,” now lived far more years outside than within,
A nation I was seemingly born to be a stranger to.
But didn’t quite stay that way.
Is there any specific music that aids you through the writing or editing process?
Lately, a little Leonard Cohen,
A little Tom Waits and his Bone Machine especially,
Or Siouxsie and the Banshees, perhaps some Puddles Pity Party.
Sometimes the Sisters of Mercy. It depends on your submission.
Do you have any rituals or traditions that you do in order to write?
Does coffee count as a ritual?
Who typically gets the first read of your work?
Certain antique ghosts of dubious opinions, frankly.
But among the living, it varies.
Typically someone I’ve written with for over a decade
In Minnesota or California. Almost never New York.
Rarely, but occasionally, Philadelphia.
If you could work in another art form what would it be?
Plausibly, theater or experimental video.
Implausibly? Traditional dance and music of Southeast Asia,
Or fashion, I’m regularly informed by friends in no uncertain terms.
#BryansArtisticMissedBoatBlues
What are you working on currently?
The planet Earth. It’s as good a place as any.
However, in particular,
A new book or two, an exhibit
Opens soon: “Laomagination”
With over twenty years of wonders
On display bridging countless rivers
Riddled with memory, mystery and dreams,
Reflecting the remarkable and the fading,
A secret war, our hidden stories.
What are you reading right now?
A new translation of the late Chilean writer Roberto Bolano’s
“The Spirit of Science Fiction,” about 2 youths in Mexico City
Obsessed with both science fiction and poetry
Currently has my attention, as one can imagine.
BRYAN THAO WORRA is the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. a forty-year-old international organization. A Lao American writer, he holds over twenty awards for his writing and community leadership, including an NEA fellowship, and was a Cultural Olympian representing Laos during the 2012 London summer Games. One of the cofounders of the National Lao American Writers Summit, Worra is the author of six books, with work appearing internationally.
