For two decades, Ricepaper Magazine published profiles, Q&A, and interviews from some of the most prominent artists, scribes, and influencers in the Asian Canadian community. The Ricepaper Second Serving series offer readers a chance to look back at our history and remember some thought-provking words spoken and written by those who helped change it.
I don’t think poetry is something one popularizes or markets. It’s something that one just does. If people read my work, then fantastic. If not, that won’t stop me from doing it. Like I mentioned earlier, my favourite part of the process is running into surprises and taking unexpected turns. When discussing the craft of writing, Adrienne Rich compares poems to dreams: “in them you put what you don’t know you know.” I’d say that’s the case when creating art in general, but it also applies to when you’re face to face with art—like reading poetry. To view or to read something that alters you in even the smallest way, and then to look up only to pause because you’ve forgotten when you are doesn’t seem irrelevant in the slightest. – Gillian Sze
“Writers in Dialogue” from issue 14.4. Click here to see Ricepaper Magazine’s archive.