Poet of the Day: Victoria Chang |
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Victoria Chang’s fourth book of poems, Barbie Chang was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2017. The Boss (McSweeney’s) won a PEN Center USA Literary Award and a California Book Award. Her other books are Salvinia Molesta and Circle. She also edited an anthology, Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation. Her poems have appeared in the Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, POETRY, Believer, New England Review, VQR, The Nation, New Republic, Tin House, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship in 2017 and a Poetry Society of America Alice Fay di Castagnola Award in 2018 for her then manuscript-in-progress, OBIT. Her fifth book of poems, OBIT, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. It was a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Voeckler Award and was long-listed for the National Book Award. She also received a Pushcart Prize for a poem published in Barbie Chang. She is a contributing editor of the literary journal Copper Nickel and a poetry editor at Tupelo Quarterly. Her children’s picture book Is Mommy? (Simon & Schuster) was illustrated by Caldecott winner Marla Frazee and was named a New York Times Notable Book. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and her wiener dogs, Mustard and Ketchup, and teaches within Antioch University’s MFA Program. She also serves on the National Book Critics Circle Board.
Photo credit: Margaret Molloy
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This poet belongs in our classrooms because… |
her poems are witty, relatable, and vulnerable. She explores love and heartbreak, feeling like an outsider and the pressure of fitting in, and the complex relationships between parents and children, both as a daughter and a mother. Often humorous, Chang’s poems employ inventive wordplay and social commentary. We can easily imagine ourselves as her main character, Barbie Chang, struggling in her (mis)adventures in love, caring for her sick parents, and her desire for acceptance. "Chang’s linguistic mastery is consistently clever and moving" (Publisher’s Weekly). |
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Copyright © 2017 by Victoria Chang. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 29, 2017,
by the Academy of American Poets.
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Freewrite about love: What is love? How does one move in and out of love? Are there different types of love? What advice would you give to someone heartbroken from a breakup?
Listen to episode 50 of The Slow Down, a podcast hosted by US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, in which she discusses love and reads Chang’s poem. Give each student a copy of the poem to follow along with the audio.
On their copy of the poem, have students read through it again individually, underlining words that are repeated or word-plays (i.e., "brother" and "bother"). (Note: articles and pronouns should not be underlined as repeated words.)
Think-Pair-Share
- What words are repeated or word-played, and why do you think Chang places emphasis on these words through her repetition?
- How do you interpret the last line, “love is / the only thing that is not an argument”?
More Discussion Questions
Who might P be? What clues can you find in the poem for P’s identity?
Why does Chang include white spaces in her poem?
Why do you think Chang doesn’t use any punctuation in this poem?
What could the “little oars” and “little boats” “in your body” be metaphors for?
Draw a sketch inspired by this poem.
Put yourself in P’s shoes. Is this good advice? Why or why not?
Prompt
Think of someone to whom you might provide insightful advice. A rising freshman? A younger sibling? You five years ago? Write your own version of a "Dear P" poem to this person using Chang’s poem as a mentor text.
Selected Works of Victoria Chang
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Special Thanks to Today's Contributor |
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Melissa Alter Smith is the creator of the #TeachLivingPoets hashtag and teachlivingpoets.com. She is a National Board Certified high school English teacher in Charlotte, NC. Melissa is coauthor of Teach Living Poets (NCTE, 2021) and the Norton Guide to AP Literature (W.W. Norton, 2022). She is 2017 District Teacher of the Year, an AP Reader, and an NCETA Executive Board member. She has presented at NCTIES, WVELA, NCETA, NCTE-WLU Summer Institute, NCTE, AWP, the AP Annual Conference, and facilitates professional development sessions. Melissa is also a coauthor of the Instructor’s Manual and AP Correlation Guide for the 13th high school edition of The Norton Introduction to Literature, and is a member of an advisory board to the Library of Congress's Poet Laureate Project educational toolkit. She is featured on LitHub.com, in The New York Times, NEATE News, NCTE’s Council Chronicle, ASCD’s Education Update, Prestwick House, The Poetry Question, and on Education Talk Radio. Her work is focused on complicating the canon, supporting teachers, and empowering students through poetry. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MelAlterSmith.
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