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A TAPESTRY OF WORDS WITH TARFIA FAIZULLAH
Born in Brooklyn and raised in west Texas, Tarfia Faizullah is the author of "Seam", winner of the 2012 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award.
Her poems appear in American Poetry Review, Massachusetts Review, among others and have been anthologized in many collections, including "Best New Poets 2014". A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of an AWP Intro Journals Project Award, a Ploughshares Cohen Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Copper Nickel Poetry Prize, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize and other honours.
Tarfia is a poetry reader for New England Review and is a contributing editor for Asian American Literary Review. She is currently the Visiting Professor of Creative Writing in Poetry at University of Michigan.
In the following editorial interview, Tarfia arouses our senses with a metallic clink and her magical arrangement of thoughts:
SLR: What is it about verse as a form of creative expression that attracted you more than prose?
TF: Poetry is the bridge between prose and song — I love that the smallest of poems can convey huge and magnificent ideas. And I like the constrained format of poetry — the way it can challenge you to adapt but maintain your own integrity.
SLR: Why did you choose the title “Seam" for your collection?
TF: My friend Amanda Abel chose the title, actually. It was originally “Interview with a Birangona", then “Heroine", and I thought both titles were problematic because they were either too narrow or too broad. I had expressed my frustrations with these titles to Amanda, and after reading my manuscript, she called me and said one word when I picked up the phone: "seam." I love that title because it is specific but can be seen as so many things in so many contexts. It's a wonderful metaphor for the lines between us, how they are woven, how they unravel.
SLR: What did you love about Bangladesh while doing your research here? What do you miss about it now thatyou're back in USA?
TF: I've been coming to visit Bangladesh with my parents since I was a little girl, but until 2010, I never lived there for any sustained period of time. I love the possibilities of Bangladesh, its wildness, its struggle between the modern and the ancient. I love phuchka in all its forms, and the clink of metal spoons on metal plates. I love the countryside, all its vast shades of green. I love the people, all of them, how they are sad, resilient, proud, self-conscious, loyal. I miss everything about Bangladesh — its full and complicated entirety
makes me love it.
SLR: Looking back, what three things would poet Tarfia 2014 tell the novice poetTarfia?
TF: Write what is necessary, not indulgent. Learn all the forms, both in the West and the East. Do not be afraid to be vulnerable.
SLR: What aspects of Bangladesh interest you as a topic?
TF: I'm fascinated by so much in Bangladesh. I'd love to interview the female freedom fighters who were in combat during the war. I'm also interested in how technology affects culture, and I'd be interested in learning more about how that's affected Bangladesh and its culture. I'm curious about class issues, the problems of colonialism, and gender dynamics in Bangladesh. I'm also interested in how Bangladesh distinguishes itself from the rest of South Asia, and how Bangladeshis view themselves in relation to the rest of the world, and how they view the rest of the world. I'm fascinated by how Bangladeshi history is taught and passed down between generations.
SLR: If poetry isn't about rhyming words, what is poetry about?
TF: Arranging thoughtful language to create magic and meaning.
SLR: You are a poetry reader for New England Review and contributing editor for Asian American Literary Review. What, in your opinion, is 'bad' poetry?
TF: I don't think there is bad poetry as much as there is lazy poetry. For me, a good poem is one where I can see the vision of the poet in every line. That vision is compelling and interesting; and it changes and confirms the way I think
about the world.
SLR: Juggling your other duties as teacher and editor, how do you find the time to write?
TF: I don't find time to write. I just do it, when I can and when it strikes me. I also don't think writing is sitting down with a pen and paper or laptop. Writing is what happens when you're in the world, noticing it, and considering your place in it. For me, that is a daily practice. I move through the world as a writer: in that way, I am always writing.
SLR: As the Visiting Professor of Creative Writing in Poetry at University of Michigan, who are some poets you are incorporating into the curriculum reading list?
TF: Natalie Diaz, Rumi, Robert Frost, Nazrul Islam, Jamaal May, Anna Akhmatova, Vievee Francis.
SLR: If you could ask any famous poet one question, who would you ask what?
TF: I would ask Rumi: "Where were you and how old were you when you realized you had to keep writing poetry?"
SLR: What are you working on next?
TF: I'm working on a second collection of poems titled “Register of Eliminated Villages" and a memoir titled “Kafir", as well as some translations. I co-edit a press with poet Jamaal May called Organic Weapon Arts Chapbook Press and Video Series, and we're really excited about the new books we're publishing this coming year. I'm also in collaboration with emcee and producer Brooklyn Shanti, and I'm working on a documentary photography project.