Artist Profile: Megan Kim

Megan Kim was raised in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains. She is currently writing and teaching as an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. One of her poems recently won the 2021 Wabash Prize in poetry, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tinderbox, Narrative Magazine, and Sycamore Review, among others. She reads for Palette Poetry.

1) Do you think being creatively fulfilled is an attainable goal? And if so, is it a static state?

For me, at least, I view this idea of creative fulfillment as an active, ever-changing relationship to my craft and questions. Personally, I identify times in my life in which I’ve felt closest to creatively fulfilled as times when I’ve been able to maintain the most consistency and openness around my creative process. Consistency, as in a practice like any other practice and not some mysterious event; openness, as in a willingness to experiment, to be uncertain, to be playful, to feel permission to be frustrated or blocked. I also associate it with times when I’ve had the support of a creative community as a part of that process. I’ve had the privilege of often finding myself in a position in which these things are in some way incorporated into a structure for me. In this way, it feels relatively attainable, but I recognize it may not always be—nor is it necessarily that way for everyone.

2) Is there one contemporary poet you've been particularly affected or influenced by?

In my teen years there were poets who, because I really had no idea what the landscape of contemporary poetry looked like, I would read obsessively over and over until I stumbled onto another name. Louise Glück was one of those poets I consider very formative because of her significant role in fueling the curiosity which in turn formed my early reading habits.

In a more tangible, day-to-day context, I was and remain actively affected by the mentorship and work of poet and translator Miho Nonaka, who advised me during my time as an undergraduate creative writing major. I feel so lucky to have taken many classes with her and for her constant generosity as well as guidance throughout those years. I especially feel her influence in the ways I now approach teaching poetry to my own students.

3) Are there any narrative structures you are particularly interested in that vary greatly from the "traditional" story arc considered to be integral to many "classics" or "great works of literature" in Westernized cultures?

I’m not sure if this counts as a narrative structure, but speaking of Miho Nonaka, a few years ago she introduced me to the Japanese form of zuihitsu, which doesn’t really fall into any categories familiar to a Westernized writing tradition. The poet Kimiko Hahn has done a lot to popularize this form in English. My interest in it led me to take an online workshop with her through Kundiman. Its name translates to “running brush,” and an oft-studied example is The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon. It seems it’s hard to define, but characteristics include an associative (even miscellaneous or spontaneous) feeling, and the use of fragments, lists, anecdotes and the lack of narrative threads. Hahn’s essay in The American Poetry Review was helpful to me!

4) Please share 2 to 3 types of art or specific artists (this can also include writers, musicians, filmmakers etc) you wish people were more aware of.

During the winter, I saw an exhibit at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art that I can’t stop talking about. It’s called Silent Spikes, and it’s a two-channel film by Kenneth Tam. In addition to questions of masculinity and race which are brought out through the image of the Marlboro cowboy as reimagined with Asian men, it takes on the ways Western expansionism and Asian American immigration intersect, incorporating voices from the Chinese laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad. I don’t know if it can be viewed in full online, but I hope I can see more of his work.

I’m also really excited about poetry comics right now! I’m in a class on Asian American comics right now; it’s reigniting a long-dormant love of comics. So I just learned this was a thing that exists and has a name. I’ve read some I really liked without realizing the genre, but I want to find more. I guess this is technically something I want to be more aware of plus try to create.

Finally, maybe this is cheating because it’s four names?…But I’m currently in the MFA program at UW-Madison for poetry, and I’m the biggest fan of my cohort-mates’ writing. I want everyone else to be as well. Renée Lepreau, Caleb Parker, Aurora Shimshak, and Mandy Tu—Keep your eyes peeled for these poets’ work!