Amy Quan Barry
Eos spoke with Amy Quan Barry after her interview with the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus.
Please tell us about your work:
I am a writer and professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I’m also the author of the poetry collections Asylum, Controvertibles, Water Puppets, and Loose Strife. My poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and other literary publications. I have received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize (for Asylum) and fellowships from Stanford University, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Wisconsin Arts Board, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
My collection of poems, Loose Strife, was initially inspired by Aeschylus’ fifth-century B.C. trilogy “The Oresteia,” which chronicles the fall of the House of Atreides. Loose Strife investigates the classical sense of loose strife, namely “to loose battle” or “sow chaos,” a concept which is still very much with us more than twenty-five hundred years later.
I also run Asphodel, a website in which I periodically share unpublished poetry.
How did you become interested in your field?
As a child, I created booklets in which I jotted poems and plays, but I had no concept of the different genres of creative writing. In college, I noticed that two of my suitemates each had journals into which they furiously scribbled. Their diligence surprised me, mainly because I assumed writing was solely an academic exercise. After witnessing this scene, I decided I would buy a journal and pen thoughts at my leisure. After graduating with a BA in Liberal Arts from the University of Virginia, I completed an MFA at the University of Michigan where I was able to delve deeper into writing and poetry.
What do you find most exciting about teaching classics and/or classical receptions? What challenges have you faced in teaching in this field?
I enjoy ruminating over big questions such as, what is it about ruins that are powerful to us? What power can we rehabilitate from lacunae in texts, such as those in Sappho’s corpus? My evocations of the house of Atreus in Loose Strife, for example, offers me an avenue to explore these queries. As a writer and someone not formally trained in Classics, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation to speak with the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus (AAACC) in January; it’s heartening to be a part of these interdisciplinary dialogues.
Tell us about a work you love to teach and/or one you find particularly difficult (and why):
I have a lot of freedom in crafting creative writing courses. I enjoy providing students with a recipe for writing and understanding poetry. Rather than focus on particular poems in the classroom, I tend to assign complete books to my students as a way to help them unpack and reassemble their own writing practices. My mainstay pedagogical text is Sharon Olds’ Satan Says; her book was published in 1980 but still resonates today. Undergraduates are fascinated by the visceral images in her poetry, and they recognize the possibilities of language in creating new worlds. Other poets whose work I repeatedly bring into my classroom are Anne Carson and Christopher Logue; it’s exciting to watch students become drawn into Carson’s and Logue’s creative reimagining of ancient myths.
What advice do you have for students or scholars interested in working in your field?
I try to remain even-tempered and encouraging when discussing this topic with students. I advise them to find an MFA program with a like-minded community of writers who share their passions. I make sure to mention that an MFA can, but may not necessarily, lead to a job as a full-time writer. Finally, I dissuade them from taking out loans to pay for an MFA program because an MFA does not offer the same job security as a professional degree in other fields; there are great MFA programs that will fund their students.
How has your field changed since you started working in it?
First of all, the field of creative writing has become more professionalized; there are a lot more MFA programs, and more lucky and talented people are becoming full-time poets (emphasis here on both luck and talent). When I studied poetry as an undergraduate, there was less of a pedagogy about teaching creative writing; from what I remember, standardized syllabi and writing exercises were not the norm. Secondly, the advent of the internet has democratized the poetic landscape. In light of this open access, the internet can misguide emerging poets to overlook many types of poetry, not all of which may be “Instagrammable.” Finally, the rising popularity of poetry is wonderful to witness. Here I’m thinking of Amanda Gorman’s 2021 performance at the US presidential inauguration and the Superbowl.
Who are your top five authors?
Kazuo Ishiguro, Michael Ondaatje, Sharon Olds, Rita Dove, Leni Zumas
Special mentions: Lynn Nottage and Edward Albee